


Oh, bite me.

by Malamander



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura And Lance Are Buddies, Flirty (ish) Keith, Flirty (ish) Lance, Frustrated Keith (Voltron), Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, I Sort Of Crammed It In There, Lance in a dress, Lovebug AU, M/M, Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt is a Good Friend, Pining Keith/Lance (Voltron), Romelle loves her fashion, Set Between Shiro's Resurrection And Returning To Earth, Slightly Insecure Lance (Voltron), Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), slowburn?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 37,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24071791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malamander/pseuds/Malamander
Summary: Lance and Keith were paired for yet another mission together. There’s strange plants, supposedly magic fruits and…oh! Poisonous bugs? Or something else?… whatever could go wrong? (or right)A Cannon-verse Lovebug Au in which Keith is bitten by a rare and mostly unknown bug as he and Lance collect a magic fruit for new Alien allies. Lance is confused and flustered and Keith wholeheartedly believes that they are already in a relationship. he also growls a bit.
Relationships: Eventual Keith/Lance (Voltron) - Relationship, Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Lance & Shiro & Hunk & Pidge, Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 171
Kudos: 517





	1. Chapter one

After the paladins had (barely) recovered from Shiro’s resurrection, they figured they needed to get back into the swing of things, and with dwindling supplies and busted lions, they needed a place to regroup.

Mostly, they needed an alien race that was pro Voltron, which was slightly hard to come by since the Galra had only invaded more planets.

But Allura had managed to find a perfect candidate: an alien race called “the Rezala’s”. they were extremely long limbed and tall creatures, a very tranquil race. They seemed to be in-between sophisticated and completely detached, while they had made many scientific achievements, they worshiped every god one could think of, much like the Arusians and the Olkari.

but they all seemed… intitled. A bit snobby, one might say. They did not like their hands dirtied.

Lance didn’t really have a problem with them, they seemed nice enough and they complimented his skin a lot, which, he’d been working very hard on to keep nice and smooth. So the compliments were always appreciated. 

But they were more or less political, not warriors in the slightest. So Lance didn’t really know what Allura had wanted with them in the first place. But they were somewhat desperate for any help they could get. So he figured he could understand.

And the thing is, the Rezala’s really wanted this magic fruit thing. 

Like, a lot.

Apparently they had practically worshipped the fruit and had found many ways to use it for a power source… or a delicious meal. They hadn’t had any access to a fruit however, for about a thousand years, because the galra had taken over the peoples who were supplying them. 

And they had told Allura that if they could get one or two for them, they would not only join the coalition, but they would feed the magic of the fruit into anything that Allura wanted, giving it some form of a power boost or strong telepathic link to the user. 

Lance was understanding why this race seemed so important to Allura a little more now.

Also they really needed accommodation since the castle ship turned into a pebble, and these aliens had plenty of space to offer.  
So of course, Allura had to become kind and doting and ordered the team to give them the fruit. 

Which was a nice thought, and would definitely gain their trust even further, but the Rezala’s couldn’t get the fruit themselves, because it was hard.  
Hard as in maybe a battle to the death for a wacky space pineapple. Or watermelon. Lance didn’t really know.

Point is, the Rezala’s couldn’t fight for the fruit, so Voltron had to get it for them, or, more specifically, Lance and Keith had to get it for them.

****

Keith huffed as he hacked through some more bushes, clearing a path for the himself and Lance, as the other fumbled with the map. “do you even know how to use that thing?” 

It felt slightly odd to be back on a mission now, especially one that seemed so simple, after all that had happened. It was a little sudden. As well as that, Lance noticed that Keith had… changed, since he had come back with his mum and a really cool wolf. Lance hadn’t been around him a lot since his return, but he was different. 

Not in a bad way! but through their short interactions, Lance noticed how he seemed to become tense less when they were in no clear danger, how he laughed easier, like a weight was lifted off of his shoulders.

Lance was happy for Keith, that he seemed happier than before. He guessed it would be because of his mum, but also the two years he had to think about things. Lance would say it was good for him.

He had also changed physically, but no one else had really pointed it out, so Lance figured maybe he was imagining things. He is definitely bigger though, he’s taller and fitter and-

Anyway. It all felt weird, going straight back to something normal, or as normal as it could get hanging around with aliens in giant robot cats. 

Lance frowned as he played with the digital map, turning it a few times before nodding. “Yes. keep going straight, we should turn left in the next fifty paces or so.”  
Keith nodded and turned back to the leaves, raising his arm again to hack at the oddly shaped plants. Lance stared at him for a few seconds, he didn’t like to admit that he had missed him, probably more than he should have. Keith was difficult to talk to at times, though Lance really only had himself to blame for that.

****

After they had been walking for a while longer, passing tall grasses of strange colours and small creatures with large spikes, they heard the faint sound of buzzing.  
As they followed the noise, it grew louder, the force of the vibrations moving through the earth. Lance gulped. 

The Rezala’s warned them of this, the onslaught of bugs that occupied this planet, guarded the fruits. Coran had said that there were many types, some would poison, some would kill, and some would cause hallucinations. But they weren’t sure which bug did what.

Great. 

Lance turned to Keith, who seemed irritatingly unbothered. “what do we do when we get to the giant swarm of bugs that want to eat us?”  
Keith sighed. “Coran said that as long as we have our armour on, they won’t try to bite us, just focus on the fruit.”

Lance frowned, his tone of voice didn’t sound annoyed or judgemental, but Lance felt a slight pang anyway. 

It didn’t take them to long to find the cave with all the noise that the bugs made, and Lance had to stop walking to take in the view. 

It was beautiful, the cave was lined with glowing flowers and moss, it was a very large cave, the tree’s closer to the end of it.

There was no light other than the entrance and luminescent flowers, but Lance thought it added to the beauty. The few trees that were towards the end, somehow still seemed the centre piece, golden weaved throughout the trees, almost like a ribbon on its beauty.

Problem was, they were absolutely covered with bugs.

“what now?”

Keith remained quiet and Lance stared at the bugs, they looked quite pretty, they were dark in colour, which he thought suited the trees own, but the sound was awful. It was a low buzz the he could feel it through his body. It was like white noise that was too loud. it was a little unnerving. 

Keith was silent for only a few more seconds before he opened his comms. “Hey team, the bugs are covering the tree, is it safe to just grab the fruit or do we need to move the bugs first?”

Lance heard the comms crackle before he heard Corans voice on the other end. “negative number three, you’ll need to move them first or I’m afraid they’ll eat the plant. They can also be quite hostile, so refrain from louder noises while they are dormant.”

The two sighed in unison, and Lance shuffled closer to Keith. “So don’t annoy the freaky death bugs? Got it.” 

Keith hummed. “what are our options?”

They waited in silence for few seconds before they heard Pidge. “Says here they like loud Cuban boys who don’t know how to flirt. Maybe if Keith offers him as a sacrifice, the bugs will let him get some fruit.”

Keith chuckled and Lance gasped, raising a hand to his chest. “Rude pidge, I’m a ladies man! And don’t you dare think about sacrificing me mullet! I’m too beautiful to die!”

Pidge and Keith groaned in unison, making Lance laugh, and soon, Keith chuckled too. Lance liked it when Keith laughed, he thought it was nice, fond even. It felt good hearing the fondness.

They heard the buzz grow louder and his eyes snapped towards them again. They had shifted toward them, fluttering their wings, no longer dormant. The bugs were all staring at them with eery red eyes. The two met each other’s gaze with a frown.

“Seriously though, they have some kind of connection to the closest people. Like, whatever you guys ‘like’ or makes you happy in the moment will attract their attention, basically it will make them more aware of where you are. Almost like their version of sight, is happiness or attraction. Interesting.”

The two frowned as they eyed the bugs, who still seemed to be dead set on the two of them. Lance sighed, no jokes on this mission, he guessed. Laughing was a no, no. 

It was either that or… 

“por favor, no te fiques en mi, senpai.” (please don’t notice me senpai) Lance breathed out.

Keith turned to look at him, his eyebrows quirked slightly upwards in what Lance took as offence and he blushed.

Keith smiled. “I didn’t know you could speak Spanish.” 

Lance’s blush deepened a little as he grinned. “Mama didn’t raise no American!”

Keith shook his head with a small laugh, making Lance smile wider, the buzz however, momentarily drowned out the noise of it as they moved closer. Not one seemed to move out of line, all of the perfectly in sync.

Lance held his breath. “Pidge?”

They waited a few moments, “Uh okay, you just have to get them off of the tree.” 

Lance looked at Keith and then back towards the bugs in silent question. “I’ll distract them, you get the fruit, get two and then we run.”

Lance held his gaze for a second longer and held a thumbs up. “roger that team leader.”

Keith gave him a crooked smile, but which indicated the bugs, making them gain speed as they approached. Lance huffed bitterly, what enjoyment was either of them getting out of this? He certainly wasn’t getting very much.

“stupid fruit.” Lance inched away from Keith and pressed himself to the softness of the mossy cave walls. The bugs didn’t seem to notice as Lance moved, ignoring him in favour of chasing Keith. He was quite offended for a few moments, before he realised Keith was probably thinking of things that made him happy, whilst Lance was being bitter about death bugs not wanting to kill him. He had to hand it to him, Keith was pretty impressive. 

And pretty ho- handso- cool! But that was beside the point.

As Lance shuffled along the walls, Keith activated his Bayard and widened his stance, preparing to slice each and every bug, which Lance thought was not a super good idea.

“Don’t hit them!,” Shiros voice rang out through the comms, “They will just follow you forever until you’re dead. Do. Not. Attack.” Keith sighed, deactivating his Bayard, and sending a sour look towards Lance when he snickered.

Lance inched further away from the bugs before he broke off of the wall, looking back at Keith to see how he was dealing with the bugs when he heard them grow louder. 

They didn’t seem to be getting any faster, so Lance figured neither of them were having a good time. Almost instinctively, he smiled and gave a salute to Keith, winking as he turned to face the tree.

As soon as he was near enough, he touched the stump, running a hand along it before whipping it back. It was purple and sticky, similar to food goo in its constancy. He belched and wiped it on his armour.

Then he heard Keith curse, who had begun to run.

He didn’t spare Keith a glance as he rushed to find a fruit, though he still felt the need to voice his worries. “What did you do?!”

Keith grumbled, and Lance finally felt something other than the sandpaper like leaves under his fingertips. “Shut up and focus on the fruit.”

Lance laughed and he stood on his tip toes to grasp the shape, slipping two times before getting a solid grip. “Bossy, bossy.”

He tugged twice to no avail, then he tried to twist, but his hands slipped on the smooth surface of the fruit. He decided to try and hang from the fruit, hooking his hands over the top before he brought his legs up as well, so his whole weight was put into the pull, and he tugged.

The fruit snapped free and he was on the ground in seconds. “Owww!”

He stood and rubbed his butt before he set the fruit aside and went searching for another.

Once he found one he did the same thing again, lifting his legs to join his hands. 

“Do you think you could hurry it up a little?” Keith said breathily behind him, from where he was hanging, he tipped his head to face Keith and gasped. “Where is your helmet? Coran said specifically not to take off your armour!”

Keith waved his hand the side, and when Lance turned his head in the direction, there he saw Keith’s helmet lying against the flowery wall.

“Why did you take it off!?” he shouted, tugging again at the fruit more frantically.

“Some sticky flower thing got on my face, I couldn’t wipe it off and I couldn’t see so… just hurry it up a little.” 

Lance rolled his eyes and tugged harder. “Oh, bite me.”

Then he fell to the ground.

As quickly as he could muster, he hooked the two fruits under his arm and ran to pick up Keith’s helmet.

“Okay, I got it lets get outta here!”

Keith turned to him as Lance caught his arm, and the two stumbled of the cave. Just to be safe, they continued to run for a few seconds, winding down the path Keith had cleared on their journey there.

Once Lance was sure that the bugs were no longer behind them, he sat down and exhaled loudly. His arms were sore and so was his butt, and he hoped that the stupid fruit was worth the trouble.

He looked over at Keith with a tired smile, but it was not returned, in fact, Keith was not even looking at him. He was staring at the ground with a hand on his face, turned away from Lance and unresponsive.

His heart rate quickened as he sat up straighter. “Keith? You okay?”

When Keith didn’t answer he stood himself, taking him by the shoulder and turning him around, “Keith-“ he gasped, “Keith!”

Keith had a fairly large and pink bump on his right cheek, his eyes seemed vacant as he stared back at Lance, almost as if he were asleep with his eyes open.  
Keith blinked a few times before he fell forward slightly, leaning against Lance, who moved quickly to hold him up. 

“Pidge? Shiro? We have a problem.” 

The response was immediate. “What’s the issue?”

Lance shifted his footing to bear Keith’s weight, who slowly seemed to be coming back to his senses.

“Keith got bitten by one of those bug things, he’s uh, faint.”

He heard Pidge groan and he would have laughed, if not for his concern.

“Okay, we’ll prepare something for when you get back, but hurry, we don’t know what the venom will do. Update us if anything goes wrong, we’ll have Hunk pick you up if necessary.” Shiro signed off.

Lance worried his bottom lip as the comms closed, Keith was no longer leaning on him, which seemed a good thing, if it wasn’t for the fact that Keith was staring so intently at his face he looked like he might try to eat it. 

“Are… are you feeling okay?” 

Keith nodded, blinking rapidly, and Lance swore he saw his eyes become pinker. “I feel fine, not sick or anything, maybe it was a hallucination bug?”

Lance nodded and lifted his had to touch the bump on Keith’s cheek, feeling it lightly, before he snatched his hand back. “Sorry.”

But Keith did not yell, instead, he smirked, an actual smirk, holy quiznack, and did the same to Lance, caressing his cheek softly. Lance hated to admit how much he wanted to lean into it.

Then Keith thumbed his lip. Lance sucked in a breath.

He began to blush under the attention. Hard.

And you see, Lance really would have moved back, laughed awkwardly, and shrugged it off like it was no big deal, but he wasn’t mean, okay? He knew Keith was probably hallucinating or something, and he really didn’t know what would happen to him. So he just let him, because he felt bad for not getting the fruit quick enough or for being too happy in the first place. It was kinda his fault Keith might be dying right now. The least he could do was let him touch his face.  
Keith traced his eyes over Lances features before meeting his eyes. His hand was still on his face and his thumb was moving softly over his cheekbone. It felt nice.  
Keith just stared. Lance stared back.

But his eyes were definitely pinker. They were dark and greyish purple, bright purple in good lighting, but this amount of purple was different. Lance figured it had something to do with the toxin, so he let Keith do as he pleased, because again, it was his fault and Keith very well might be hallucinating right now.

Or dying, so Lance figured they should probably start heading back.

“You’re so beautiful.” Keith sighed.

Lance spluttered, backing away. “w-what?”

Keith smiled again. “you’re cute too.”

Oh no. Keith was definitely dying. 

Which means they better get going!


	2. Chapter two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith return the fruits to the Rezala's and get Keith to the med-bay for inspection. things don't go quite as they'd hoped and Keith is a lot stronger than Lance thought was possible.

The ride back to Rezala was… interesting. 

They had taken the Black lion there, meaning they had no choice but to let Keith pilot, and even if he had insisted that he was fit to fly, Lance wasn’t so sure.

He was acting strange. Keith Just kept staring at him. He would take his eyes away from flying to just look at him.

And at first Lance thought that maybe he was checking to make sure he wasn’t doing anything he shouldn’t, but after a while it became clear that… he wasn’t.

Now, Lance knew Keith was no quitter, so whatever was happening to him, he was sure that Keith was fighting like there was no tomorrow, but Lance was worried he was losing.

He had checked in with the team every so often to update them on how Keith was, but Keith, for the most part dismissed the conversations.

“I’m fine.” Keith would say.

“Shut up! You were bitten by an alien death bug! And you’re acting weird.” 

Keith looked at him over his shoulder, rolling his eyes. “I feel fine, and how am I acting different?”

Lance raised his arms as he gestured to Keith, who raised an eyebrow. Lance frowned and looked to the side, eyeing the corner of Keith’s chair with distaste. “You keep staring at me, focus on flying!” 

Keith shook his head and chuckled as he turned his attention back to piloting. “That’s because I like looking at you.” 

Their conversations were a lot of that, Lance asking him questions and Keith saying weird things that gave no indication of what was going through his head. He didn’t know if he was hallucinating or if the poison was making him delirious or… anything. It was driving him mad.

when they had landed, Lance still kept his eyes on Keith, tracing the curve of his new scar with his gaze, noting how sharp his jaw- 

he kept his eyes on Keith to try and catch him doing something odd. But as they each took a fruit in their hands; Lance saw nothing out of the ordinary. He looked down and his eyes caught the bright orange fruit in Keith’s arms and glared.

“Stupid fruit, I bet it tastes bad anyway.”

Keith huffed a smile and put a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “It wasn’t that hard, you did well.”

Lance smiled faintly, eyes lingering on the bump of Keith’s bite. “Nah, I was a bit slow on this one, I just need to get back into the swing of things.” 

Keith’s eye softened and he brought his hand up to tuck some of Lances hair behind his ears, leaning in to peck his cheek softly, “You did fine, you managed to get the fruit, didn’t you?” then he pulled away, nodding his head to the direction of the hanger door with a small smile. “Come one, they’ll be wanting their fruit.”

Lance nodded dumbly and trailed after Keith. What was that? Keith never just… did that! why would he- 

Lance just wanted to get this mission over and done with. 

Then he wanted answers.

****

The answers, it seemed, would have to wait.

Lance was very relieved upon seeing his friends waiting for him and Keith just past the bay doors, a Rezalian doctor already on hand. 

There were more people than just his friends however, there were people who he remembered as the rulers advisers, but there were some that he did not recognize.

There were many Rezala’s who seemed to work in the palace, the others who were standing closer to the advisers, Lance assumed to be some type of scientists.

And they were all focused raptly on the fruit they had retrieved.

He looked at them all staring at it in wonder, and thought about how long they had been waiting for the fruit, to be able to use it again after so long. It reminded him a little of how much he missed the rain and ocean. He sort of understood how they would have felt, jumping at the opportunity to get something they dearly missed, and even though it was a little bit of a pain, he supposed it was worth it.

A taller alien with longer hair had walked up to him and extended both hands silently. 

Lance stared for a few seconds and then carefully handed it to them, in his peripheral vision he saw Keith doing the same thing with another.

The aliens took the fruit and cradled it like a baby to their chests, mirroring each other’s actions. “Thank you paladins, you have done a great deed to our peoples.” 

Lance saw Shiro approaching slowly, and he turned to the aliens with a small smile. “We were happy to help, but if you don’t mind, we need to see to medical issues.” 

The aliens in front of them bowed and moved to the side, Shiro catching up and putting a hand on Lances shoulder, beckoning him forward.

Shiro got straight to the point. “So boys, how exactly did Keith manage to get bitten with his armor on?”

The two made eye contact briefly before falling into a plethora of “uhh’s” and “umm’s” until Shiro relented with a shake of his head, “We’ll discuss it later, our main priority is treating the venom.” 

Lance looked at the floor. 

Hunk and Pidge were waiting for them at the door with the doctor, who Lance found out was called ‘Belee’, who would treat Keith.

They told them that Coran and Allura were waiting for them in the med bay, and so they lead the way.

After a few moments, Shiro caught Lances shoulder again to hold him back, so they would fall one or two steps behind the others.

Lance looked up at him questioningly and Shiro smiled. “I just wanted to say sorry, officially, for how my, uh, clone treated you. What he said isn’t true Lance, I just wanted you to know that.” 

He looked up at Shiro with wide eyes. “What? Why?”

Shiro’s smiled dimmed. “I could see almost everything, but I couldn’t do anything. It hurt to see myself be so mean to everyone, you especially. So I’m sorry.” 

Lance grinned toothily at him. Shiro had always been his hero, he had always looked up to him as someone inspiring. To see that he cared about him would never cease to make him smile, but has he thought more, it dimmed along with Shiro’s.

“It’s okay. I’m sorry I couldn’t hear you in the astral plane, it would have made things so much easier if I had noticed.”

That was the thing that Lance felt possibly the most guilt about, the fact that he had all of the pieces right in front of him, but he still couldn’t manage to fit them together. It was his fault Shiro had to die before they could save him. It was his fault that Keith had gotten bitten, if only he had been faster, if only he had been smarter-

Shiro squeezed his shoulder lightly, bringing him out of his thoughts, and he smiled at Lance kindly, a soft shine to his eyes Lance couldn’t quite place.

“We both have things that we could have done better, but the important thing is that we tried. We’re okay now, aren’t we?” Lance nodded, “Bad things happen, and there might not be much that we can do in the moment, but it takes strength to get through it. You did well Lance, you’re doing well. You should be proud.” 

Lance failed to believe that Shiro did anything wrong considering the circumstances, but his kind words helped ease the sting of Lance’s guilts.

****

Once they had all arrived at the med bay, Dr. Belee asked Keith to sit up on a long and thin yellow chair and ran over the basics of the examination with him.

Coran had greeted them briefly before he attached several suction cups to Keith’s arm’s and face, making Pidge snicker. 

Allura explaining to the other what Dr. Belee had told Keith as they stared to work.

Hunk had shuffled to Keith’s side and poked his bite with squinted eyes. Keith winced and looked at him with a tired face. Hunk pouted. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay? No stomach-ache or light headedness? Nothing?”

Keith shrugged as Coran popped another suction cup on his face. “Everything was a bit hazy for about a few minutes, but other than that I feel fine.”

Allura drew her brows together, “That seems odd.” She tutted, “perhaps the poison is unnoticeable?”

Coran twirled his mustache, humming along with her. “He could be a non-symptomatic carrier.”

Hunk slowly moved away, pointing a finger at Keith with a frown. “It’s contagious?”

Dr. Belee hummed in amusement. “Not to worry paladins, the toxins are non-contagious. Though the lack of symptoms leads me to believe that it was the bug that causes hallucinations, that has bitten the black paladin. We will still attempt to flush it out of the system, however, in case my hypothesis is incorrect.”

Pidge turned around in her chair, facing away from the screen she had been inspecting and putting her legs up beside Keith on his seat. “His heart rate is higher than normal and there is definitely something in the bloodstream, but so far none of Keith’s internal organs have been damaged.”

Shiro sighed. “That’s good news at least.” 

Lance was inclined to agree. 

Dr. Belee nodded and explained to them all that they would inject something into Keith to sedate the toxin in his blood flow, and flush it out with another medicine for few more days. 

Lance bit his lip. Keith seemed fine, aside from that strange interaction just outside of the Black lion. 

He wasn’t acting any differently, but that…kiss. It was definitely something to do with the toxin. Lance was sure there was more to it.

Hunk turned to him as Dr. Belee explained the procedure to listening ears. Hunk gave him a quizzical look.

“Weird, isn’t it? He seems fine now. Did he do anything weird around you?”

Lance flushed slightly and bit the inside of his cheek, avoiding Hunk’s gaze, but meeting Shiro’s. Shiro stared at him with quirked eyebrows. “What did he do?”

Lance shifted, he had to say something. But he was so confused. Keith was acting fine, he said he was fine. He looked fine and stats said he was fine, fine, fine. 

Well Lance was not fine! Why would Keith do that? his head was buzzing, and he just wanted some sleep. But he guessed that would have to wait. Along with the answers.

“He, uh-“

But before he could start his terribly awkward sentence, he was cut off by a loud shout.

The three of them whipped their heads in the direction of the noise to see that Coran and Allura pinning a thrashing Keith to the doctors seat while Dr. Belee scrambled for some kind of needle. They gasped. 

Shiro was the first to act, moving across almost immediately to help hold Keith down. “Keith? Keith! It’s okay, calm down!

Keith just growled at them, baring his teeth.

Coran slapped a hand over Keith’s mouth with a tut, which he promptly bit. 

Coran screeched and jumped back, giving Lance a better view of Keith. He gasped. Keith’s eyes were now a shocking shade of pink, not unlike the tinge of it he saw earlier. 

Allura and Shiro tried their best to hold down Keith’s arm so that Dr. Belee could inject the antiseptic, but Keith would not stop fighting. Not stop growling. 

Lance figured it must be his galra strength or the toxin because these were the two strongest paladins, struggling to hold his arm.

Growing nervous, Pidge joined to help in holding Keith down by pinning his other arm, Hunk joining her on the same side. Lance rushed to grip his legs.

Still Keith would not stop, but they couldn’t inject him until he did, it was too dangerous to be sloppy.

Lance had to use his whole body to pin down Keith’s aggressive kicks, but still Keith managed to thrash as if he wasn’t there and Lance was running out of patience. “Keith!”  
Keith snapped his head towards him and growled, thrashing harder. 

“Stop! Moving! Please!” he huffed out his words as he fought Keith’s legs, until he didn’t have to.

He looked up and met Keith’s eyes, still a bright pink. Keith looked back.

He had stopped. 

Dr. Belee made quick work of the antiseptic plunged the needle into his skin, a sigh of relief leaving them all.

They held him down for a few more seconds before he passed out, hair dishevelled, and arms bruised from everyone’s tight grip. They all looked at each other, wide eyed, as no one made a move to leave. 

Something was sooooo definitely wrong.

****

After about an hour of incessant worrying and wondering what was going on, they all finally got to see the results.

Dr. Belee had walked back to the group with Pidge on one side and Coran on the other. Dr. Belee looked relieved, Coran looked nervous and Pidge seemed nonchalant. Neither conveying what the answer entailed. 

Dr. Belee spoke first, a small smile on their face. “You’re black paladin will be okay, my hypothesis was indeed correct, we are positive that these were the effects of the hallucination bug. So we are much less worried for gruesome outcomes, especially considering his healthy mannerisms earlier.” 

Allura crossed her arms, a frown painting her features. “What happened to him then? When his eyes were pink?”

Pidge walked over to take a seat next to Hunk, crossing her legs. “It was the toxins defence mechanism. Kinda like an antibody that fights virus’ externally rather than internally.” 

Hunk gasped. “Woah… So wait, every time we try and give him medicine he’ll try and kill us?” 

Coran chuckled nervously. “I’m afraid so, that’s why he’ll need to be asleep for it to be effective.”

Dr. Belee nodded and the others released their breaths. 

Hunk looked over to Dr. Belee, resting his cheek in his palm. “Do you know what he might be hallucinating?” 

Dr. Belee frowned and eyed Pidge, who shrugged. “I’m afraid not, all we know is that a higher amount of endorphins were realised, which correlates to enjoyment or happiness, but we cannot tell exactly what that is.”

Lance sucked in a breath. 

Dr. Belee had told them a few more things but Lance wasn’t paying much attention, because maybe… he was pretty sure endorphins were related to love. So… that must be what was happening to Keith! Right? The bug must have made him hallucinate that-

“Lance, do you have any idea what he may be hallucinating?” Allura asked.

He lifted his head to see that Dr. Belee had gone and that everyone was now staring at him. 

He couldn’t lie, he knew what was going on. Or at least, he thought he did.

He swallowed. “I might have an idea.”

They continued to stare at him, and looked down to his lap, “Well, he uh, kissed me on the cheek when we were getting out of the lion, and he kept looking at me and telling me I was, uh, beautiful?” 

By the time he was finished, he was sure he was bright red, and no one said a word. 

The silence was broken however, by Pidge. “oh my god.”

He brought his hands to cover his face and groaned into them, muffling the sound. “Shut up.”

Allura frowned slightly. “So you think the bug is making him think he is in love with you?”

Lance threw his hands up in the air and turned his head. “I don’t know! Those were just the weirdest things he did!”

Hunk leaned forward in his seat. “What do we tell Keith if Lance is right?”

Shiro sighed, “We tell him nothing.”

Pidge blinked at him. “What? Why?”

Shiro shook his head. “When people hallucinate, they believe the things they see are true. If you tell them that it isn’t, well, it doesn’t go down so well. I’ve dealt with people like that before, and even though it feels wrong, you have to go along with it. To just agree with what they say is the best thing to do.”

Lance stared at him, then looked incredulously at Hunk who smiled sheepishly. “Sorry dude, but he’s right. We can’t tell Keith it isn’t real, he’ll freak out.”

Lance crossed his arms, and Allura placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing softly. “We should ask him questions when he wakes, altogether at first, perhaps he will reveal if he has feeling for Lance, if not, we will try one on one until we are sure of what is happening.”

She addressed to everyone, and they all agreed quickly, running over what type of questions they should ask to keep everything as inconspicuous as possible. 

Allura kept her hand on his shoulder, and Lance felt less tense as he focused on the warmth of her palm. He brought his hand up to squeeze hers in a silent ‘thank you’. she smiled.

****

When Keith woke, they were all by his bedside, waiting anxiously as he blinked and wiped his eyes. 

Which were grey. Good. 

Lance was sure he heard even the room sigh. 

They asked Keith what he remembered from when they arrived to the med bay, but he had no recollection of his ‘growling episode’. Regardless, he apologised profusely.

Dr. Belee smiled kindly at Keith as they set down a tablet. “You are quite alright, it wasn’t your fault anyhow, just a defense mechanism the toxins have in place.”

Dr. Belee explained to Keith all they knew about his situation, alluding to his hallucinations however, per their request, and Shiro sent them a grateful look.

After Dr. Belee had answered all of Keith’s questions, Shiro spoke up. “We were just wanting to ask you some questions for clarification, since you say you don’t remember some things.”

Lance cringed slightly, Shiro decidedly wasn’t the best of actors, but Keith only gave him an eyebrow raise as he surprisingly agreed. 

“So, I’ll point to all of us and you tell us who they are and what they are to you. Okay?” Hunk said, sounding, to his credit, only slightly nervous. 

Keith scoffed, but didn’t say anything in protest as Hunk pointed to Pidge, who was seated closest to Keith.

Keith rolled his eyes with a small smile as he looked at Pidge, who stuck her tongue out at him.

“That’s Pidge, she’s the shortest, and She’s our hacker. She flies the Green lion and I guess she’s my friend.”

Pidge scoffed crossing her arms. “Gee thanks Keith.”

Keith chuckled. “She’s a good friend.”

Lance cooed when Pidge smiled, but it faded as she turned to glare at him. Lance held out his hands with a small smile and she sneered half-heartedly before looking back towards Hunk.

Hunk then pointed to Allura. 

This went on for a few more minutes and Keith gave all the right answers, so Lance thought maybe he was wrong. Maybe Keith was just trying something new? 

Lance had little hope that this would be true because he hadn’t yet had his turn. 

As Pidge had put it, he was the “best for last”, which Lance had taken as a complement at the time, but the wait was excruciating.

He didn’t know what he wanted to hear. Did he want it to just be a hallucination? Or not? He didn’t know. He didn’t even want to try to answer that question. 

He didn’t want to have to face the feelings the answer would bring.

But right now he was just anxious, his heartbeat spiking when Hunk finally pointed at him. 

Keith smiled softly as he looked at him, and Lance felt something tug in his stomach. “That’s Lance, Voltrons right hand man, Sharpshooter and pilot of the Red lion,” Lance almost turned blue from how strongly he was holding his breath. “and, he’s my boyfriend.” 

He heard everyone gasp, including himself.

Boyfriend?!

Keith looked at them with a harsh frown and drawn eyebrows, “What?” 

Hunk and Lance made brief eye contact and Hunk nodded. Lance turned back to Keith and smiled warmly, though his hands were sweaty, and his leg was bouncing like crazy. “Sorry, we just thought you wouldn’t remember is all.” 

Lance felt his stomach tug harder when Keith’s frown subsided, relief evident on his expression. “Have a little faith in me.” 

Blood rushed to his face.

Quiznack. What was he going to do now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> I tried to give the Love-bug AU a twist with the hallucination thing, because so many are "feeling enhancers", I thought I might try something different.
> 
> sorry for the lack of klance content in the first chapter, and a little with this one as well, but I will be including a whole lot more of klance in the next chapter. I'll also be introducing Krolia and Kosmo.
> 
> Thanks for reading! :D


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance freaks out a little, and there's lots of soft Klance.
> 
> Also everyone is Freaking tired.

He had been in over his head, thinking this would be easy, thinking that maybe Keith wouldn’t like affection, that maybe it would only be a small amount of things like cheek kisses or hand holding, that maybe they wouldn’t even have to share a room. 

Unfortunately for him, Lance was wrong. 

It had only been a day since Keith had been bitten and Lance felt like he might die. He was just thankful that the others were always around them, so he didn’t have to spend time with Keith alone. 

The worst part was that he had no clue what stage of the relationship Keith thought they were in.

He had no idea if Keith would expect them to share rooms or not, to kiss or not, he didn’t know how comfortable he should act around Keith, because if he got it wrong, it wouldn’t be fun for either of them.

Had they said I love you yet?

Well, had Keith thought that they had? What was he going to do if Keith said he loved him?

He hated this; he really did. He wanted this to be over.

But at the same time he didn’t. 

He liked it when Keith would reach for his hand, or when he would smile at him with soft eyes. He liked it when he caught Keith staring at him from across the room. He liked all of that.

Didn’t make him hate it any less though. 

As soon as the team had finished their little questionnaire, Dr. Belee had returned with two new people by their side, who were dressed in what seemed to be formal clothes, so Lance guessed they were somewhat noble. 

“Hello paladins, I’m glad to see that your Black paladin is looking well, we will continue the treatment along, but as of now you are perfectly healthy, which is a good sign. This is Marla,” They gestured to the person on the right, “And Lew,” to their left.

“They will guide you to your rooms, and when you are ready, our ruler would like to speak with you about your services to us.”

Right, the fruit. 

He almost forgot about that stupid thing, but he had bigger things to worry about. 

Like was Keith going to expect to share a room? Or if he didn’t and Lance acted like he did, would Keith freak out, or would he just let them share, what if he made them share by accident? What if he acted like he didn’t want to share rooms and Keith freaked out and they would have to have a conversation about why Lance was being weird. A conversation to which he had no answers!-

He felt a hand squeeze his shoulder and he took a deep breath, looking up. Hunk smiled at him, but Lance didn’t have it in himself to feel embarrassed. “Just go along with what he does, if he seems like he wants you to follow, follow. It’s not as big as you’re probably making it out to be.” 

Lance smiled back, eternally thankful for his best friend. it would be fine, just go with the flow.

Yeah.

The aliens ahead of them bowed to them all, their very long bodies bent in an uncomfortable looking position. They were…attractive, Lance thought. He would totally throw them some finger guns and a one liner, on like, any other day.

But…

Keith smiled at them and with quick introductions, they began to lead them down a large corridor to their rooms. The corridors were a pale mint green, a green light atop ther heads. The ceileing was as expected, very high. Lance had a feeling everything in this place would be far to long for them all.

They passed through a door to a larger room that looked close to a lounge room, there was a far to log couch and a screen, a small kitchen sort of thing further down.  
The doors were down a hallway, all connected to the larger room they were standing in. Lance though it was nice, that they would all be so close. It was different from the castle; in that they wouldn’t have to run a mile to get to their main room. 

Marla turned to him, Keith and Shiro as Lew directed the others to their rooms. “I take it that the Black and Red paladin will be sharing a room, is that correct?” 

Here we go.

Keith met Lances eyes and he tried his best to seem indifferent, and shrugged, Keith gave him an odd look. “Uh, yes please.”

Oh no.

Shiro smiled. “Is it possible we could see Krolia and Kosmo as well?” 

Marla’s gaze shifted nervously. “Of course, we shall bring them to these quarters, but you must understand our concerns. The galra-“

Keith’s gaze sharpened and Marla frowned. “Ah, apologies, we will collect them.”

At hearing their names, Lance turned to Shiro, who seemed nothing short of uncomfortable. “I was wondering where they were, I assumed they would be here. Why aren’t they? And where is Romelle?” 

Shiro sighed, “Some nobles dragged Romelle to a dressing room, and they put Krolia and Kosmo in a cell.”

Keith huffed. “Typical.”

The others had returned from their little tour and the aliens excused themselves, leaving them all in the open shared space to look around. 

The doors were colour coded by colours, so it was easy to identify whose room was who. 

As Lance was heading to his room, Pidge snagged him by the shoulder and nodded her head, then she walked away, like something from a spy movie. Lance shook his head and moved to follow.

Keith turned around and raised an eyebrow at him, Lance smiled apologetically. “I’ll be back in a tick; Pidge wants me for something.”

Keith frowned a little and then nodded, Lance took the second he turned around to escape.

He walked up the hallway and to the long back of the couch, a hand stuck out from the side, waving him over, and he walked around to join Pidge. 

As he sat she rested her head in her palm. “I’ll cut to the chase, Krolia doesn’t know about this since we haven’t had contact with her, same with Romelle, so just hang out with Keith and do whatever you guys do while we wait, just don’t be weird.”

Lance scoffed. “When am I weird?”

Pidge gave him a blank look. “Literally every day.”

Lance squawked and hit Pidge’s arm, making her snicker. “Also, we’ll all be taking him to get his treatment every morning, and we anticipate it will take around three days for Keith to stop hallucinating. But right now you should just worry about spending time with your boyfriend.”

Pidge snickered harder when Lance began to blush, and he turned to glare at her. “Shut up.”

he stuck out his tongue and she waved him off as he left, walking back around the couch to his bedroom door. 

He shook his as he opened it.

He gasped. It was very impressive. 

The bed was large and in the centre of the room, vastly different from the castle ship. There was a tall bedside table on each side and a floor to ceiling window overlooking some kind of garden. 

It the walls were decorated with potted plants similar to that of the cave with the fruit and small lights akin to stars dotted all over the ceiling. It was beautiful.  
“Pretty nice isn’t it?”

He jumped as he heard the new voice and Keith chuckled. Lance glared at him in indignation, before he turned his head back to the flowers. “Yeah, it’s pretty sweet.”

Keith crossed his arms and lent on a door frame Lance assumed led to a bathroom. “What did Pidge want?” 

He fought for words, opening, and closing his mouth before he was interrupted by a flash of light, and then-

“Kosmo!”

Kosmo appeared and fell on top of him, pushing him to the ground, and licking his face with gusto. “Oh my gosh Kosmo!” 

Krolia dusted herself off next to him as Kosmo trotted over to a snickering Keith. “Apologies Red paladin, he was growing restless in the cell, I was surprised he stayed put.” 

Lance chuckled fondly as he watched Kosmo from where he was seated. “You can call me Lance you know, and it’s no problem, he’s too cute to be mad at.”

She smiled slightly. “Lance.”

Kosmo looked around the room for a little while before he decided he wanted to explore somewhere else and he teleported away. Keith sighed as he wiped some of Kosmo’s saliva off of his face. “Never listens.”

Krolia smiled fondly as she placed a hand on his shoulder. “I would say he listened well enough. How did your trip go? Did you manage the fruit?” 

The soon began to converse about their adventure for the fruit, Keith explaining the bulk of what had happened and Lance adding his own input or complaints. He quite liked Keith mum, he thought she was funny, and she teased Keith a lot too, so that was an added bonus. 

He was happy for Keith; that he had gotten to meet his mum. He was so happy for Keith…

But it hurt.

He didn’t know what had happened to his family, they didn’t know he was okay. He wanted to see them so badly. It hurt to see Keith with his mum, because it reminded him of his own mother.

He knows it’s selfish to think that way, but he just wanted to see his family again. 

He smiled as Keith told the story, and laughed when he made some jokes, Krolia laughed too, he was particularly proud of that.

He felt like his smile was strained though, and he cursed himself for being jealous when he shouldn’t be. 

Krolia departed to go with Shiro to Dr. Belee for information about Keith’s treatment, as Lance couldn’t tell her whilst Keith was in the room.

Lance sat down on the overly large bed and Keith joined him at his side, reaching for his hand. Lance let him take it.

“Hey, it’s okay Lance, you’ll see them again.”

Lance turned to look at him. he guessed he wasn’t as good at hiding it as he thought. It sort of surprised him that Keith had been able to tell exactly what he was thinking, even when they had first arrived here, Keith just seemed to know. 

“I don’t know Keith. They could be… sorry, I shouldn’t be- you just got your mum back and I’m-“

Keith shushed him quietly and moved closer, urging Lance to lean on him and he moved his arms to hug his centre, Lance practically melted into the embrace. “It’s okay Lance, I felt that way too for most of my life, when I saw people with happy families. I get it, it’s okay.”

Lance sighed and turned his head into Keith’s chest. The hug felt nice, it was a huge comfort, they didn’t really have much time for hugs now a days. Lance missed them.

“Thank you.”

Keith smiled and kissed his hair. “Always.”

****

After they had all gotten more comfortable in their rooms, they met each other in the outside room an sat on the large couch. Though they were disproportionate, the couches were surprisingly comfortable, they all settled with ease.

Lance could practically feel how tired everyone was, the drained emotional status that everyone had was choking the air, almost willing Lance to fall asleep where he sat. 

The tiredness had finally caught up with everyone after the whole Keith shenanigan, Krolia and Kosmo were considerably less tired, but even they would need to rest at some point. No to mention the lions still needed rest as well.

Hunk ground. “Raise a hand if you feel like a zombie.” 

Everyone raised their hands, even Krolia, Coran and Allura. “I have no clue what that is, but I am sure I share your sentiment.”

Lew chuckle from the side, and everyone collectively turned to them. The Rezala’s seemed more comfortable around Krolia now. Marla and Lew, along with Dr. Belee were quickly becoming Lance’s favourite people here.

“Our leader was hoping to see you now, but your health is our top priority, so you should all rest. The Black paladin shall be treated after you wake.”

They bowed and left with a smile. Once they had closed the door, Shiro practically jumped from his seat and waved without looking back. “Goodnight guys.”

Pidge scoffed quietly, turning away from Shiro to pat Kosmo. “Sleep is for the weak.”

Shiro turned and pointed a finger at her, glaring softly. “You will sleep Miss Holt. Now.”

She groaned and got up, Shiro watching her as she made her way to her room, before they both shut the door. Krolia laughed. “Your team dynamic is quite amusing.”  
Allura nodded as she made her way to her own room. “I suppose you could say we are a family.”

Lance snorted. “yeah, Shiro and Allura are like our parents.”

Coran crossed his arms and turned away with a huff, Hunk chuckled. “You’re like our uncle Coran.”

Coran stood and twirled his moustache with a smile, looking proud of himself. “I am a very cool uncle.”

Keith smiled. “The best Coran.”

Krolia, Hunk, Lance and Keith stayed in the lounge for a while to talk before Krolia retired to her room, and when Lance turned back to Hunk, it seemed he had fallen asleep. Keith laughed quietly and got up, quickly kissing Lance’s cheek. “I’ll run a bath while you wake him up.”

Lance faltered at Keith’s words, but he smiled as best he could as long as Keith was looking at him, then he rushed to Hunks side. “Hunk, Hunk! Wake up!”

Hunk jolted and rubbed his eyes. “Huh, huh, I’m awake!”

Lance grasped his arm. “Hunk! He said he’d run a bath? What? What if he wants to take it together? What about when he wants to kiss me? Hunk!”

Hunk took Lance by the shoulders and shook him harshly, successfully silencing him. “Dude, if you don’t want to have a bath, just say you’re tired or something, or that you don’t want to. I don’t know about the kissing thing though. Maybe you should just kiss him back?” 

Lance shoved Hunk away. “No way am I doing that!”

Hunk shrugged, yawning. “Why not? I mean, you always seem so eager to get a date anyway, I thought you’d enjoy this.” 

“Why would I enjoy it? I’m not that mean! This is weird.”

“What are you scared of then?” 

Lance paused. What he scared of? 

Hunk nodded, much to Lance’s confusing, and “ahhed” as he stood, patting Lances shoulder sympathetically. “Good luck buddy, I’m sure it will turn out fine.”

Lance raised his eyebrow at him as Hunk continued to walk off, barely giving him a wave before he was inside his room, leaving Lance with his thoughts. 

He crossed his arms. What did Hunk know anyway?

When he went back into his room, he lied on the bed, sighing deeply. 

Keith emerged from their bathroom and laughed. “What’s up?”

Lance frowned, looking away from Keith. “I hate being confused.”

Keith chuckled and turned back to the bathroom. “A constant struggle for you then?”

Lance snapped his head over to Keith and gasped. “Hey!”

Keith laughed louder, and it was that same, fond laugh, he had heard in the cave. It was nice, it made him feel better. Keith made him feel better. 

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

He assumed Keith didn’t run a bath, since he had come out only moments later, but he had changed his clothes. He was wearing his old clothes from the castle, ones that were entirely too tight for him now, they clung to his skin, leaving nothing to the imagination. 

Well damn Lance’s imagination. 

Keith smiled as he lent over Lance. Lance pouted. “What?”

“Do you want to do face masks?”

Lance practically leapt from his position. “Face masks?”

Keith handed him a small tin, which he opened to reveal a pink goo, it smelled like honey. “Yeah, I figured it might make you feel better. if you’re too tired that’s fine too, we can just sleep.” 

Lance smiled as he looked at the tin. That was…nice, of Keith. He’d been doing so much for him in the short span of three days, as nice as it was, it was unfair. Lance wanted to repay some of the kindness he had gotten.

“What do you want to do mullet?” 

Keith faulted. “What?”

“We can do what you want to do.” 

Keith smiled fondly. “I want to spar, but the Rezala don’t have any training areas.”

Lance thought, no training area huh? And they couldn’t go to a courtyard, so maybe in the room? But the bed was too big, there wasn’t much space around it, definitely not enough for sparring.

Keith and his training. 

Maybe they could… roughhouse? Like he and his siblings would do, and it was definitely tiring.

“Well, we could do it here.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “In this room? Rea-“

Lance launched himself onto Keith as fast as he could, pinning him to the bed by his shoulders. He pressed his whole body weight onto him, trying to make sure he would stay down for as long as possible. Because let’s be real? There is no way Lance could hold Keith down, especially after that whole ordeal in the med bay. He stood no chance.

But the element of surprise gave him an upper hand. He also wasn’t a bad fighter, and he had a lot of experience in roughhousing.

“What- Lance?”

Lance smirked. “I got ya pinned. What are you gonna do about it mullet?” 

Keith smiled slowly as he caught on, and faster than Lance would have expected, the tables had turned, and he was now the one on his back.

It was Keith’s turn to smirk. “Give up?”

Lance grinned up at him, twisting his wrist out of Keith’s grip and sliding away. “Not on your life.”

***

Lance huffed as he laid on his back, lying next to Keith whose hair was tussled, and clothes were askew. That was pretty fun, Lance thought, he could actually beat Keith at something. “I win.”

Keith turned over, facing Lance, and he had the audacity to say. “No you don’t.”

Lance turned too, crossing his arms, and glaring as harshly as he could. “I won mullet, fair and square.”

Keith chuckled as he reached a hand up to place on Lance’s cheek bone with soft eyes, “We’ll call it a tie.” Then he leaned in.

Lance flinched away. He was wrong, not easy.

He wasn’t ready for this, the blaring reminder that Keith wasn’t quite himself, but when he saw Keith’s hurt expression, he was quick to backtrack. 

“Sorry Keithy, no kisses with bad breath.” 

He tapped his nose and scurried off to the bathroom, not looking back to see Keith’s reaction.

As soon as he was inside the bathroom he sighed, no toothbrush.

Keith poked his head in from the side. “Yeah, there isn’t really anything in here that we can use.”

Lance nodded as Keith walked closer, smiling humorously. “So I guess you’ll just have to deal with bad breath kisses.” 

Lance was quick to put a finger to his lips. “Or you will have to deal with no kisses.”

Keith pouted against his finger and Lance felt his heart flutter. 

He drew back his hand and walked past Keith, nodding his head towards the bed and Keith trailed behind. He gestured to the bed with a tired expression. “What side do you want?”

Keith frowned slightly as Lance pointedly looked away from him. He had so many thoughts running through his head. Keith was fun, he was being nice, really nice. It felt good to see him smile and laugh, it felt nice when Keith would touch him. He liked it, all of it. He felt bad for feeling so good. He hated this.

But he loved it.

“The left.”

****

They had both slipped under the covers with a sigh, adjusting themselves into a comfortable position. 

Lance lay on his side, facing away from Keith. 

Keith was facing him; and he felt his stare burning through the back of his skull. 

Keith shifted closer to him and his hand brushed his back lightly. “You’re being weird.”

Lance remained still. “You’re being weird.” 

Oh so painfully weird.

Keith moved closer and brought an arm around his waist. He sucked in a breath. Keith pulled him against him, so Lance’s back was pressed to his stomach.

Lance curled into it despite himself.

Keith sighed tiredly and he nuzzled into Lance’s hair. Lance found himself growing calmer at the sensation. 

“What’s wrong?”

“A lot of things.”

Keith squeezed him tighter. “Like?”

Lance huffed. “The same as everyone else Keith, the same as you.”

“What do you mean?”

Lance’s hand found Keith’s hand on his stomach, and Keith intertwined their fingers.

“We all have to deal with problems, Shiro has his resurrection, ‘Lura and has Lotor and Coran has the castle. You have you’re mum-“

“That’s a good thing Lance.”

"I know, but it’s a lot. We all have stuff.”

“So what’s your stuff?”

Lance sighed, eyelids drooping. “Please Keith.”

Keith squeezed his hand softly. “We will talk about this.”

“Everyone needs to talk about things.”

“Okay, we’ll all talk about our stuff later.”

“Thank you Keithy.”

Keith hummed into his hair and Lance didn’t have the energy to move away.

“Love you.”

Lance’s eyes snapped open; his eyebrows drew together as he held back a whine. He got it now. He didn’t know how long he thought he could continue to ignore it, but the feelings slapped him in the face. He knew why Hunk had sighed and patted him on the shoulder, Hunk knew too. He knew why he had caused those bugs to go faster so many times. 

He knew the whole time. 

“I love you too.”

Because he meant it when he said it back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Sorry that took so long, I didn't intend for it to be that big of a gap between chapters. I'll try to be quicker next time!  
> Any suggestions for pet names? I did "Keithy" but I'm not sure about what Keith could call Lance. 
> 
> Lance panicking is my atheistic.


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance freaks out a bit, the team have a chat and they discuss diplomatic affairs with the Rezalian ruler.

When Lance awoke, he was warm.

It was a nice feeling, waking up so warm. It made him feel safe. 

Safe and warm- heh fun times. 

Well not really, but you know, hot chicks.

No! he has a boyfriend! Bad Lance! No girls!

Wait…

His eyes snapped open, and he saw the same mint green walls and potted plants as yesterday. 

Hmm, Yesterday…

“Aaahhh!”

He sat up, jostling Keith, and all the memories of what had happened came rushing back to him.

Oh no, yesterday really happened didn’t it? He really, really loved Keith? 

And Keith…

“Woah, sweetheart, you okay?”

Was high on some alien bug toxin.

He shook his head and smiled wearily, trying his best to ignore how the pet name made his heart leap. “Yeah, just had a weird dream.” 

Keith was still half asleep, which was surprising, since he would always wake up at some ungodly hour at the castle.

Maybe it was because of his time with Krolia on the space whale, that he finally let himself sleep. 

Or it was some stupid other, other side effect of the bug bite.

Lance hoped it was the latter.

Keith sat up with tired eyes and a lazy smile, dropping his head onto Lances shoulder and nuzzling his neck with his nose. “Mmm, you smell good, le raal.”

Lance chuckled lightly, flinching only slightly when Keith’s lips brushed the skin of his neck. “Le raal? What does that mean?”

Keith smiled against his neck, pressing his lips more firmly to Lance’s skin. “It’s a galran term my mum taught me. It suits you.”

Lance scoffed and lightly shoved at Keith. “That doesn’t tell me what it means.”

Keith huffed a breath that fanned out warmly over his neck, making him shiver, “It’s a secret.” Then he felt teeth. 

“Ah! Keith!” he scrambled off the bed, crossing his arms at a laughing Keith.

“I like it when you blush.” 

Lance glared at him as his cheeks grew pinker. “I don’t blush.”

Keith chuckled, and moved to join him at his side. He cursed the room for having no places to hide in. 

“Sure you don’t le raal.”

Then Keith leaned in, and their noses brushed, making Lance feel fluttery. Keith smiled and stared at him, pressing their foreheads together and nuzzling Lance’s nose softly. “Still have a problem with bad breath kisses sweetheart?” 

Lance’s breathing stuttered, but he didn’t say anything, he was too scared to.

And for a moment, he let himself forget about everything else.

For a moment all that he thought about was Keith.

Keith’s warm breath mingling with his, Keith’s hands at his waist, Keith’s smile as he looked at him.

He forgot about anything and everything else and leaned in for a few precious seconds. 

But that was all it took.

Then there was a knock on the door, and he tore himself away, breathing heavily. Keith looked at him for a moment and Lance averted his eyes. Keith just stared at him in confusion, and he wished he could provide an explanation.

“Lance, Keith? We have the treatment scheduled now, can I come in?” 

Keith turned his head to the door before looking back at Lance, frowning with draw eyebrows. “Yeah, come in.” 

Lance saw Shiro standing through the door and he smiled weakly at him, Shiro seemed to waver when he met his gaze, then he frowned completely when he met Keith’s. “Hey… are you guys-“

Keith shushed him with a strained smile. “It’s fine Shiro, no big deal.” 

And in retrospect, it wasn’t a big deal, they just didn’t kiss, which is really not a big deal. 

But it felt like a big deal. Lance was so conflicted. 

He loved Keith, he loved him, and it hurt. Because Keith said he loved him to, said he wanted to kiss him and hug him, and he called him pet names… but it wasn’t...

It wasn’t real… not to Keith. As is the nature of hallucinations. 

But why did Keith have to hallucinate this?

He tried so hard to push it down, how he felt for Keith. Maybe it was even working, maybe he had tricked himself into having no feelings for him.

But it was always at the back of his mind, every time they made each other laugh he would think it. 

He knows he’s being dramatic; he knows it’s only a few days. 

But he’ll hurt Keith too, if he can’t control his stupid heart.

Shiro smiled awkwardly as he nodded, eyeing Lance subtly. “Ah, okay, well, we should be going now, so put on the clothes they supplied for us in the wardrobe. Keith, you wait until after the treatment to put yours on, we are meeting the ruler afterwards. Meet us out here when you’re done.”

He threw them one last smile before Keith closed the door, turning back to Lance with the same frown he had before, and Lance wished he could sink into the shadows.

“Come on then, let’s get it over and done with.”

****

Lance slipped into his clothes easily, they fit him well, very well. 

They were nice clothes, very stylish. 

His garments were blue, naturally, and he was wearing tight, royal blue pants that cut of mid-calf. They were also very high waisted, the waistband of the pants covering his belly button.

They had white panels running up the sides of his legs with some flower print on top of them, these aliens sure liked their flowers. 

The shirt, however, was very loose on him. It was a pale blue shirt with tighter cuffs and loose arms, it also fit quite long on him, so he decided to tuck it in, leaving baggage at his waist. The cuffs of his sleeves were white and again adorned flowers, the whole piece coming together perfectly. 

He was digging this look. 

But there were no shoes.

He didn’t really notice before, but none of the aliens wore shoes. He liked the freedom of not having to wear shoes personally, but he figured the others might not agree. 

He knew Hunk never liked bare feet, he always said they were gross. 

He walked out of the wardrobe to see Keith waiting for him with a small smile, so Lance did a quick twirl and winked.

Keith chuckled and stood, reaching for his hand, but Lance pretended not to notice, and handed Keith his own outfit, walking to the door.

Everyone else had put on their own clothes, and Romelle was back too, chatting at a fast pace with Coran.

Everyone was looking pretty fine in Lance’s opinion. Hunk was wearing a similar style to him, his pants however, were brown and he had not tucked in his shirt, which was a nice looking pale yellow.  
Pidge and Shiro were both wearing their respective colours as well, Shiro in a tight black sleeveless turtleneck, Pidge in a loose green sleeved turtleneck. Everyone’s outfits included some type of flower, but they were all slightly different. 

“Caliente maldito! Aren’t we all looking fine?” (hot damn)

Pidge gagged slightly and Hunk chuckled. “Yeah man! That totally suits you!”

Allura smiled sweetly, patting Lance’s shoulder. “Yes, Romelle did an excellent job in helping with our wardrobes, sizing and all!”

Lance gasped and squeezed her arm. “Aww princess, you’re looking amazing!”

Her dress was similar to the one she wore at the castle, but the colour was now pink and the skirt was shorter.

“Thank you Lance, as do you.”

Romelle grinned. “I did such a fabulous job; you all look stunning! I’m sure you will as well Keith.”

Keith sighed, joining his mother’s side, “I feel underdressed.”

Lance snickered, throwing his arm over Allura. “don’t worry Keithers, not everyone can look as good as me!”

Keith crossed his arms with a fond shake of his head, making Lance’s stupid heart beat faster. “Dork.”

Shiro cleared his throat and nodded towards Marla, who had just walked in. “As much as I admire your confidence Lance, we should be going now.”

Coran waved them off with a smile. “I’ll be staying in here with Romelle and Allura, don’t want to risk getting bitten again, have fun you lot!” 

Keith frowned. “Bitten?”

Shiro put his arm on his shoulder and pushed him forward. “Don’t worry about it.”

When they had entered the med-bay, Dr Belee was very quick to inject Keith with anesthetic, but everyone still had to hold Keith down for a few seconds before he fell asleep. Hunk sat on the floor, leaning on Keith’s bed, ad Marla chuckled. “He will be rather difficult to handle won’t he?” 

Hunk sighed. “Yup.” 

Dr Belee hummed, tapping on a screen in their hand with a small frown. “I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

Lance gulped. 

“Shiro, you were quite right about the hallucinations, I’m afraid that if Keith receives knowledge that what he believes is real is not, the form he takes whilst receiving medicine may become permanent. But so long as he does not know, everything should be alright.” 

Everyone immediately turned to stare at Lance, and he lifted his arms up in offence. “I’m not going to tell him!”

Hunk tilted his head to one side, raising an eyebrow. “Well yeah, but you’re the one who has to deal with it, it’s kinda weird actually, that he hallucinated dating you. And you are defiantly going to freak out.”

Pidge pointed at him accusingly. “You’re going to have to be all lovey dovey with him for days, you’ve been doing fine so far, but there is no way you’ll be able to hold it together forever.”

Shiro smiled at him kindly, “Look lance, we trust you okay? But today I saw the tension between you two, and I’m willing to bet it’s because you panicked.”

Lance frowned and crossed his arms. “I just don’t want to kiss him.”

Dr Belee cleared their throat and smiled kindly, beckoning Marla over with a wave. “We shall leave you to discuss this in piece, Lew will be outside the door, you summon them when you are ready to have an audience with our ruler.” 

With that they were both out the door, leaving a sleeping Keith on the bed with the others to watch over him. 

Hunk sighed and rested his head in his palm. “Bro, I told you to just kiss him back.”

Lance tensed is arms, shoulders bunching near his ears. “I can’t.”

Krolia sighed, and Shiro frowned. “Lance-“

Pidge scoffed, “Seriously Lance, why can’t you just kiss him, it’s no big deal.” 

But it was to him. 

“I know, I just- This is harder than I thought it would be.” 

Shiro offered him a small smile, and Lance turned away. “We’re a team Lance, we help each other.” 

Lance nodded. “I know Shiro.”

****

Keith woke only a minute later, and they were quick to usher him into his clothes. 

He wore black pants and a tight long-sleeve red shirt, the same white panels, and flowers on his arms that everyone else had, but again with a slightly different flower. Lance thought he looked good. 

Keith shot him a small smile from across the room as he was talking with Shiro, and Lance flushed.

Yup, pretty good.

Hunk leaned against his shoulder and eyed him; Lance turned away. “What?”

They had asked for Lew to get Allura, Romelle and Coran from their rooms, Pidge and Krolia offered to accompany them, so the rest of the group were helping Keith. 

Hunk frowned. “Sooooo, uh, the Keith thing huh?”

Lance turned to give him a blank stare. 

Hunk shrugged. “I just noticed that you, uh…”

Lance frowned, leaning against Hunks shoulder and hugging his arm. “I know you know Hunk, just please don’t tell anyone.” 

Hunk smiled and returned the embrace, squeezing tightly. “Of course not, you’re secret is safe with me.”

Lance chuckled wetly. “You’re horrible with secrets.”

Hunk drew his eyebrows together in a determined frown. “Not for my best bud!”

They both laughed quietly, and it helped Lance breathe a little more, some tension easing from his shoulders.

But it was still only some.

****

Once everyone was together again, Lew made quick work of guiding them all to the throne room. They had told them that their ruler was about to begin the process of using the fruit, but it would take days to complete.

Lucky they were stuck there for a few days then.

When they entered, they all gasped. The throne room was breath taking.

Like everywhere else, it had green walls and potted flowers, but this was at another level. The walls were practically plastered with flowers, and the ceilings adorned shining gold. The room was giant, big enough for hundreds. 

But the ruler… looked like a god.

They had long, flowing garments across their body and many gold accents, their hair floated in the air as if it were under water, and they were much larger than the average Rezalian. 

They were beautiful. 

“Hello paladins of Voltron. I hope you have enjoyed your stay thus far. I am ruler Sushmar, I welcome you to Rezala officially.”

Lew was bowing, so the rest of them followed suit, and Sushmar chuckled. “Please, there is no need for that, you have done us a great deed, now we wish to repay you.”

Keith stood straighter and walked a little ahead of everyone else. “Ruler Sushmar, I am the Black paladin and leader of Voltron, we thank you for your hospitality.”

Sushmar frowned. “Then you would be the one who was bitten, for that I apologise.”

Keith smiled. “It’s okay, we’re just glad we could get the fruit for you.”

Allura took a place next to Keith, and he took a small step back. “Ruler Sushmar, I am princess Allura of Altea, it is an honour to meet you.”

Sushmar smiled and stood from their seat, towering over them all, and they placed a hand on Allura’s shoulder. “I have heard great things of Altea, I will be glad to help your cause.”

Allura smiled in kind. “We thank you for joining.”

Lance couldn’t help but smile too, this was what he enjoyed, making people happy with his efforts, it’s what made whatever punishing task they had to do worthwhile, honestly, getting the fruit wasn’t that hard. Besides, these people deserved it. 

The ruler walked to the side, beckoning them all to follow, and they gestured for them all to take a seat at a rather large table. 

As soon as everyone was seated, they waved their hand and a hologram of the fruit appeared in the centre of the table.

“As you know, this fruit is one of our main sources of power. What we offer to you in thanks for retrieving it for us is the use of that power. I can give it to anything that you desire, so what would you like for me to use it on?”

Allura turned to Keith, who shrugged.

Shiro hummed. “Perhaps we should store it?”

Ruler Sushmar frowned, and so did Allura. “How do you mean Shiro?”

Hunk mimed a box with his hands. “You mean like a battery type thing?”

Shiro nodded. “Something like that.”

Sushmar shifted in their seat. “I’m sorry but the only one who can wield its power is me, I would have to be with you in person if you wanted to use it. It is impractical.”

Pidge nodded. “You have a point.”

Keith sighed. “Maybe we could add it to the lions? Or Voltron?”

Coran shook his head with slightly wide eyes. “No, I’ve looked into it, the fruit is extremely incompatible with quintessence.”

Sushmar grimaced. “It is true, when mixed with quintessence, it can corrupt. However, alongside quintessence, it can enhance.”

“What does that mean?” Keith inquired, leaning forward in his seat.

Pidge pointed at the hologram with an elbow on the table. “It means that if we mix it into Voltron it will probably do something bad, but if we use it with Voltron, it can do good.”

Shiro rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Could you provide an example?”

Sushmar stood and waved their hand at the hologram, and it shifted images, “It does not necessarily need to be infused with something, it can go beside it. For example, if instead of putting its power into your Voltron, it is possible to use alongside a blast, enhancing its power. This blast can also be purely quintessence, and it will still aid you. so long as it is not mixed.” The hologram transformed into a blue blast and a pink line wrapping around it, making it larger.

Pretty cool in Lance’s opinion. 

Krolia tapped her fingers to the table. “So how would we use it?”

Sushmar took their seat again. “That is up to you.”

Lance hummed thoughtfully. “What if we save it for later?”

Romelle frowned, raising both eyebrows. “uh Shiro already-“

Lance waved his hands across his face, the setting them down on the table. “Not like that. I mean like, what if we leave it here with you, and if we ever need it, you could come to us and add it to a blast or something, seeing as you’re joining the coalition. Besides, that would keep you away from engaging in battle, all you would really have to do was use you’re magic to give us some fruit juice, you wouldn’t even need many people to come. We also can’t use it in Voltron, or by ourselves, so this would really be the best option.” 

He looked up to see that everyone was staring at him and he laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “uhhh.”

Sushmar smiled. “I would be perfectly willing, if that is what you desire. If I could help you to defeat the galra I would be immensely happy to do so.”

Allura smiled and met Keith’s eyes, they nodded to each other, and Shiro gave them a thumbs up. “It is decided then.”

Sushmar clapped. “Wonderful, we shall have a ball and feast to celebrate our alliance in a few days’ time.”

Allura laughed. “That is really not-“

Hunk was quick to jump in. “Thank you so much ruler Sushmar, we would be honoured.”

Shiro laughed and Pidge hollered, fist bumping Hunk through the air. This would be fun.

****

When they were back in their rooms, Lance found that he had been given a pair of pyjamas, and eagerly put them on. He had been to long without good pyjamas. 

Maybe he could even convince everyone to wear theirs too. 

Once they were on, Lance never wanted to take them off, they were the impossibly comfortable, he felt like he might fall asleep right there. 

He sprawled out on the bed and curled into himself, sighing happily. 

He heard the door open and he sat up, waving at Keith, who had walked in with Kosmo. 

“Hey le raal, where did you get those?”

Lance patted his thighs, and Kosmo trotted over to him with a lolling tongue. “The wardrobe mullet.”

Kosmo leapt onto the bed and laid his head on Lance’s lap, who threw his arms over him and buried his face in his fur. “You are so. Cute.”

He heard a fond sounding sigh. “He’s not the only one.” 

He looked up to see Keith staring at him from the door frame, apparently his new favourite thing to do. Lance buried his face back into Kosmo’s fur with a groan. “Go get changed!”

It didn’t take long for Kosmo to teleport away, leaving Lance to pout alone in the bed, and he fell backward, throwing an arm over his eyes, giving a dramatic sigh.

Keith emerged from the wardrobe with a stunned look on his face, and Lance chuckled. “Comfortable?”

Keith nodded. “These are probably the best clothes I have ever warn in my life.”

“Anything’s better than those dumb fingerless gloves.”

Keith crossed his arms with a teasing smile. “You like them.”

Lance smiled back, winking at him, and flinging his legs over the edge of the bed. “You have no proof.”

Keith sighed and walked over to Lance, pressing a hand to his thigh, and leaned down to give him a kiss. Before he could however, Lance turned his head, making Keith kiss his cheek instead. 

Keith frowned as he pulled back. “Lance-“

Hunks head poked through their opened door and he waved them over, “We got some dinner!” he said excitedly, then he was gone.

Keith gave Lance one last concerned look and walked over to the door, before stopping and turning around. “By the way, that was a really good idea you had in that meeting. You’re a great strategist.”

He held out his hand like he was waiting for Lance to walk over and take it.

So he did.

Keith’s hand was soft in his, and his smile when he did take it made his heart jump in his chest.

When Keith turned around, his smile was gone, and he tried to just focus on the food he was about ready to devour.

It would only be a few days, and people were in possible danger.

He had to suck it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thanks for reading! That was a fairly quick update, I just know I'm going to be a little inconsistent. Sorry in advance.
> 
> Thank you for he pet names suggestions by the way! I made sure to use some. Also if you have any better options for the Galran pet name I'd be happy to hear.
> 
> I also had a small dilemma about whether of not I should give Lance a dress to wear. I will at the Ball/Feast if you all would like that, I just wanted to be safe and not do it in case you wouldn't.


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You guessed it, Lance freaks out, but Keith does too! Hunk and Pidge have suspicions about the hallucination and the Rezalian ruler is very excited for the ceremony.

Lance had to hand it to these aliens, their food was outstanding, it was almost on par with Hunks cooking. 

Almost.

They had even invited Marla and Lew to have dinner with them, not that Lance minded, he enjoyed their company. 

They were nice, and coincidently, the ones who had originally complemented his skin, so Lance may have be biased. 

The two also seemed to be quite close to one another, Lance figured they must be in a relationship, seeing as they were always so close. 

They were sort of opposites though, Marla was determined and curious, eager in their nature, while Lew was more quiet, nervous, adventurous but more so intrigued.

They balanced each other out, while also giving each other new points of view, they worked well together, it seemed. Kinda like him and Keith.

“So paladins Keith and Lance, how did you two meet?”

They had all been discussing how they had met, reminiscing on their garrison days. Lew and Marla were enthralled in the works of human society, almost ridiculously so, but Lance supposed he was just as intrigued about theirs.

He was having fun, listening to everyone’s side of the story, and for once, he didn’t mind not talking his head off, he was good to just listen, until it was his turn that is.

He sighed, resting his head in his hand and grinning. “Me and Keith? We go way back!”

Shiro coughed into his hand. “Keith and I.”

Pidge snickered and Lance turned to glare at him for a few seconds before continuing. “We’ve known each other since we were little kids, being in the same class for years and all. I hated his mullet, I guess he hated me too, even in Voltron for a while as well. I was always trying to beat him at everything, but he was just too good. He was such a brat, going around punching people. He was also Shiro’s favourite, completely ignored me.”

He gave a side long glance to Shiro, who frowned like a kicked puppy, Lance waved his hand with a smile. “I’m Shiro’s favourite now though, so it’s fine.”

Shiro chuckled and Keith rose a brow at him, which he pointedly ignored. “But anyway, he was just too good, too fast, too smart. So I became his arch-rival! I was actually getting close to his scores before he was booted for, and I quote “disciplinary issues”, so I took his spot. Then when we found Shiro after that whole abduction mumbo jumbo, he said he’d completely forgotten me! and he says the bonding moment was bad, ha!”

Shiro stared at Keith with wide eyes and Keith stared down at his plate, Lance cringed, he guessed Shiro didn’t know about the booting.

Lew gasped. “Such an interesting story! How is It you came out of that in a relationship, if you claim to have hated each other?” 

Lance froze. So did everyone else.

Rule numero uno of hallucination, do not ask how it happened.

Because it didn’t, and when they think about it, they could provide no answers. Because nothing lead to it, finer details were lost in the thought. Because It didn’t happen. Then people usually freaked out. They could not have Keith think about it.

And they could not have him go pink-eyed growling killer on them.

So Lance intervened with an awkward laugh. “Oh you know, I used the rivalry as a way to get his attention, he was into the banter, here we are!’” 

Hunk laughed loudly. “Ha-ha yeah, he had a major crush on him for ages.”

Allura flinched slightly at the noise, and Shiro mimicked Hunks expression.

Hunk stared at him with wide eyes and Lance stared back. Hunk was a horrible actor.

But Keith took the bait anyway.

“Weirdo.”

Lance gasped and smiled widely, holding a hand to his chest. “Excuse you. You’re dating this weirdo!”

His chest tightened, but he made sure his grin didn’t fall.

Keith smiled and leaned closer to him, humming lowly, “Lucky me.” He reached for his hand under the table, but Lance was quick to flinch away, instead using his hand to grab his spoon. He leaned away from Keith’s face with a teasing smile, but Keith just leaned back in with a smirk of his own.

Pidge groaned loudly. “Please, don’t be all gross in front of me.” 

Pidge, on the other hand, was a good actor.

Lew sighed wistfully. “You are sweet together. It is good to see that Voltron as a team is strong.”

Allura smiled eagerly. “Yes, I agree, we have all become quite close.”

And then the topic was dropped, like it hadn’t been discussed.

But Lance couldn’t help but cling to it. He shouldn’t have said that, the thing about the rivalry, it was far too close to the truth.

He did hate Keith, In the beginning, but then the banter and showing off was for his attention. 

But the effects of a poisonous bug was not how he wanted to get it.

****

They had been there for two days after that, Keith’s treatment was going well, save for the very scary pink eyed thing that kept happening, but it was all under control.

Also Lance’s slight inability to handle kissing or any sort of PDA, but he was working on it.

They had all been feeling rather antsy though, not being able to leave their rooms much, so they had proposed Lew and Marla give them a tour of the place, with they seemed more than happy to accommodate. 

The aliens were very eager to show the paladins and friends around, but they were also very adamite about when and where they could go.

They were very… doting towards Keith, always checking in on him and blatantly staring at him when they were out and about, Lance would have found it funny if it weren’t for the growing pit of nerves in his stomach. 

Their doting made him worry, because no matter how healthy Keith seemed to act, he was still sick.

And it was still Lance’s fault.

Aside from that, the planet was beautiful. The trees were large and lush, everything was beautiful in colour, in appearance, in smell.

It was all so magical, it made for a wonderful distraction.

But the flowers by far, were the most impressive part. 

Lew and Marla were especially enthusiastic about the flowers, they told them how they had been growing on their land for eons, they told them of their beauty and their meaning to their people.

It far exceeded their expectations when they did lay eyes on it.

“The Huagra is the largest of all of the flowers we grow here, it represents our whole planet. Our ruler has one in their chamber, they use the flower to feed the fruits magic into our soil.” 

The flower was huge, it was possibly as big as the green lion in diameter.

It was a bright purple, thousands upon thousands of little petals sculped its bed like face. It was somewhat similar to a hydrangea, but far more elegant.

Keith however, seemed less impressed with the flower than the others, he seemed somewhat sombre. He also refused to make eye contact with Lance, and he couldn’t help but feel a little hurt.

“It’s beautiful!” Romelle gushed, “I have never seen one before, but they were said to be quite magnificent.” 

Marla nodded. “They are indeed, they conduct magic more fluidly than any machine ever could.”

Lew gasped. “Princess Allura, perhaps our ruler would allow you to help them in the ceremony of the fruit. We call it the Alca ceremony. I hear you are an Altean alchemist, I’m sure ruler Sushmar would be more than happy to-“ 

Marla placed a hand on their shoulder, interrupting their words. “We cannot speak for them, but if you would like we shall ask.”

They smiled at kindly at Lew, who sheepishly looked away, their cheeks darkening. “Apologies Marla.” 

Marla squeezed their upper arm, “Do not feel bad, you are kind to offer it.”

They smiled at one another in a way that gave Lance a feeling of warmth, he even heard Hunk coo.

Allura clapped her hands together, “That is a wonderful idea, I shall ask the next time we speak with them.”

Coran hummed and poked the flowers petals, eyeing it with intrigue. “If you can manage to put your alchemy through this you could learn a lot! I remember Alfor using this often, though I haven’t seen one for deca-phoebs.” 

Lew looked up at the plant with a smile, eyes glistening with pride. “It is exclusive to us; it is very powerful if used correctly.”

Marla sighed and turned to Krolia. “That is why we were so sure the galra would invade us to take it, either for our Huagra or for our magic of the fruit.” 

Krolia frowned thoughtfully and glanced at the Alteans. “The blade wiped all information about your planet long ago. Unfortunately, they were ambushed before they could do so with more planets, but you were our priority.”

Lance smiled; the blade had done so much for the universe. 

And people thought there were no good galra. 

Coran gasped. “If that witch had gotten a hold of this-“

Shiro frowned. “The results could have been catastrophic.”

Lance grinned, placing a hand on his hip. “Well good thing the blades had it handled, those guys deserve way more credit!”

Krolia nodded sagely, But Keith did not brighten, Lance saw this and frowned. Keith met no one’s eyes as Lew and Marla continued to show them more of the flowers, nor did he smile much. Lance made a point to stare at him, but Keith masterfully ignored it.

Lance drew his brows and nodded his head; he would get Keith to talk to him. he turned back to follow the others, determined.

****

Keith was a little annoying.

Apparently even though he was his official, unofficial boyfriend he still wouldn’t tell him. Even high on hallucinations Keith was stubborn, good to know. 

“Just tell me what’s wrong Keith, you’ve been down the whole day.” Lance pushed, but Keith only crossed his arms.

“It’s not important Lance.”

Lance scoffed. “It so is.”

Keith huffed, squinting his eyes. “You don’t want to talk about what’s bothering you, respect my choice as well.”  
Lance paused. 

That was different. he couldn’t tell Keith, because bad things would happen if he did. He wanted to, he just wanted to get it off of his chest somehow, but he couldn’t.  
He had talked with Hunk about it whenever he could, but Hunk only ever had one answer. ‘It’s only a few days, just let him decide what you guys do, don’t be weird.’ 

But he was being weird, he couldn’t help it! He loved Keith, and Keith was hallucinating everything! 

How was he meant to act when he knew he couldn’t take anything they did with a grain of salt?

It was all dangling in front of him, but it was still out of his reach.

He was getting what he wanted at the cost of not getting it at all.

And every reminder of that made him flinch back and want to hide, because it hurt.

The hurt was getting old, but he could never get used to it, how Keith looked at him now. 

“Okay, fair, but still, you should talk to me.” 

Keith growled, and Lance jumped at the noise. “And you shouldn’t talk to me?”

Lance frowned and dropped his hands to his side, completely at a loss. “Keith-“

Keith took a step back and inhaled deeply, like he was trying to calm himself, “Do you not want this?” he gestured between them. “Is that what your problem is, why you have been flinching away all the time?”

Lance gulped.

Keith looked at him with defeat, and sat down on the bed, turning his head away. “Just say so Lance.”

Lance rushed to his side, sitting down and placing a hand on his shoulder, causing Keith to turn his head.

“No Keith- that’s not- I don’t...”

He just wanted to tell him, he wished he could explain.

Keith drew his brows, turning his body to face Lance. “Then why have you been so hesitant Lance? I thought we were past this.”

Lance stiffened and willed his hand to remain on Keith’s shoulder, “We are, I just- it’s a long story.” He squeezed his hand into a fist. “I’m sorry for the way I’m acting, it’s just been a rough week.”

Keith gave a hesitant smiled, and cupped Lances cheek. “I suppose it has.”

Lance tried his best to ignore his pounding heart, but it wouldn’t let him. It wouldn’t stop pounding, wouldn’t stop reminding him that this wasn’t real, that Keith was sick, that it was his fault he was in this mess in the first place.

He lunged forward when he felt the tears prick his eyes and wrapped his arms around Keith’s shoulders tightly, burying his face in his neck. “I love you.”  
His heart wouldn’t let him forget it.

“I love you too.” 

It wasn’t real. 

****

As soon as he had the chance he went out to the gardens, he needed to clear his head.

Keith was nice, he was handsome and kind and strong and stubborn, and Lance had fallen.

He loved him.

He loved him, he loved him, he loved him.

It was still so hard to get his head around. 

He was walking blindly down the maroon coloured path, mind distracted. 

He didn’t even spot Pidge as he passed her, and he jumped like a cat touching water when she tapped his shoulder.

Pidge tilted her head, moving her hand away slowly. “You okay?”

Lance frowned, crossing his arms, willing his light blush away as he collected himself. “Not really.”

She waved him over to the Huagra she was near and they sat down on the round underneath its petals, crossing their legs.

Lance tapped his knee. “What are you doing out here?”

Pidge shuffled around in her garments pockets and pulled out a small jar. “Collecting samples for Coran, he’s with some of the scientists now. I came out here with Hunk too, but I lost him. what about you?”

Lance huffed a small laugh. “Getting away from Keith.”

Pidge frowned and tucked the jar back into her pocket. “Why?”

Lance put his head in his hands, muffling a defeated whine. “Because Keith thought I wanted to break up with him because I refused to kiss him and stuff, so we had a fight? He’s suspicious of me, but I can’t tell him why I’m freaking out and that sucks because I’m in love with him, and this is really hard.”

He turned his head to see Pidge staring at him with wide eyes nodding her head slowly. “Huh, that’s a lot.”

Lance groaned. 

“Are you going to tell him that once all of this is over?”

Lance frowned; he hadn’t really thought that far. He was just going to cross that bridge when he got to it but… he hadn’t even thought about what might happen after all of this.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know what?”

The two of them jumped when they heard the other voice, and Hunk poked his head around the flowers large petal, pulling one aside to join them in their make-shift hide out. “Oh! There you are! What were you talking about?”

Pidge opened her mouth, but Hunk interrupted, sitting in front of them both. “Okay, carry on.”

Lance huffed. “This is stupid.”

Pidge laughed quietly. “It is a little stupid, how did he even manage to get bitten?”

Lance scowled. “Dumb mullet-head got flower juice on his helmet and had to take it off to see where he was going.” 

Hunk gasped with a smile. “Oooh ‘mullet head’, extra angry?”

Lance sighed. “You have no idea.”

Pidge hummed thoughtfully, and the two other stared at her questioningly before she rolled her eyes. “I just find it strange that Keith is hallucinating dating you. I mean, none of the other cases were ever anything like that, they all seemed to have the same thing in common, death. The person bitten thought they were dead. Dr. Belee didn’t want to worry anyone seeing as that didn’t happen to Keith, but his symptoms are so different, it’s fascinating.”

Lance and Hunk gawked at her, and she frowned. “What? I’m just wondering why, and it was one-hundred percent the hallucination bug as well, so what’s different?”  
Lance gaped at her.

Why was Keith’s case so different? Was it because Lance was there? 

“Do you think you could find out?”

Hunk hummed, “I don’t know man, that’s pretty wacky, but we can try.” Pidge nodded, and lance released a breath. 

He could deal with trying, he could deal with Keith.

****

Later that day when ruler Sushmar asked them together for audience, Keith did not make a move to hold his hand.

He didn’t know it that relieved him or not.

Marla and Lew, true to their words, had asked them if Allura could join the ceremony, and unsurprisingly to Lance, they had said yes.

Ruler Sushmar had summoned them all to the same area as before, the large table in the throne room, the hologram screen open again. Thought this time the hologram displayed the Huagra flower, and a Rezalian holding the fruit close to it.

There was also another Rezalian that they had not yet met, this one was the most masculine that they had seen so far, their hair short and bright green.

The mystery person was also dressed similar to the ruler, formal attire matching the ruler almost to a T. They looked similar to each other; Lance wondered if they were related.

They also seemed slightly peeved, mouth in a tight line and eyes sharp in the direction of ruler Sushmar, Lance concluded they were defiantly related somehow. 

Ruler Sushmar smiled at them with the same sharp eyes, and they scoffed, turning their head. 

“Forgive them for their rudeness,” they stressed the last word with a pointed stare “This is my child Raymon, they will be watching their first Alca ceremony tomorrow, and one day they will perform their own.”

Raymon waved awkwardly at them, and Lance smiled back, catching their eye. 

They let a faint smile graze their face as they set their eyes back on ruler Sushmar. Lance felt oddly flushed.

Ruler Sushmar clapped their hands, turning Lances attention back to the hologram.

“Now, the ceremony starts with our vows and chanting, which you do not need take part in. then I will have Raymon bring the fruit to us.”

Raymon watched the hologram intently, and Lance wanted to know what was running through their head.

“Then princess Allura, you and I will channel our quintessence into the fruit, pulling out its own power and feeding it to the Huagra. That is the most difficult part, but the ritual cannot be stopped once it has begun. I must know your ability’s before we begin, as we do not want anything to go wrong.”

Allura smiled easily and nodded to them. “Of course, I would be glad of rehearsal.”

Sushmar smiled happily and turned off the hologram. “Wonderful, I am glad. Raymon?”

Raymon got up from their seat and stood at the head of the table, thought they still seemed peeved, in Lances opinion, they seemed calmer, so he figured that was a good sign. 

“You paladins may attended if you wish it, but you will only be able to watch from the sides, not partake or interfere.”

Hunk hummed quickly and tapped the table. “That’s great, no touching or talking, got it. But uh, what about that ball and feast you guys talked about earlier?”

Lance chuckled into his hand and Shiro sighed, but a small and amused smiled grew on Raymon’s face, some annoyance bleeding out from their shoulders, making Hunk brighten.

“Ah yes yellow paladin, the ball will commence the day after the ritual, their will be food and dancing, a celebration for the ages.”

Pidge pumped a fist in the air silently and Shiro hit her arm with a glare. Lance liked the sound of that.

Ruler Sushmar smiled proudly. “They planned it themselves, they are quiet eager for you to enjoy.”

Raymon turned to glare at them but it lacked the bite their previous expressions held. They then turned back to face them, ignoring their doting parent. “Yes, well… Your black paladins treatment aligns with the ceremony, so the medicine should be complete by the time it is over, unfortunately that means he will miss the Alca ceremony, but we could reschedule if you wish to see it that badly.”

Keith shook his head wearily, smiling only faintly. “It’s alright, I would like to get the treatment finished as soon as possible.”

Raymon nodded. “Of course.”

As they moved to take their seat again, they caught Lance’s eye and smiled, Lance smiled back curiously and tilting his head, which caused Raymon to smile wider.  
Sushmar stood again and summoned two others who had been standing by the door. “If is all the same to you princess Allura, I would like to waste no time, the practice can begin now If you would like? Your adviser can come also.”

Allura practically jumped to her feet, Coran not far behind. “Yes, we can begin now.” 

Sushmar smiled. “Splendid, Raymon, could you guide them to the courtyard? Marla and Lew should be waiting for them there.” 

Then they were gone not long after, leaving Raymon and the rest of the team alone. 

Raymon smiled and gestured to the door, standing from their seat. “I shall take you back, please follow me.”

When they all got up Lance was quick to join Keith at his side, and he slipped his hand in Keith’s with a smile, daring to plant a kiss on his cheek. Keith brightened.  
He could deal with Keith for one more day, he would not let the pink growly Keith take control.

And though he could not deal with his selfish heart, he would have to.

Just for one more day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading!
> 
> Sorry for the inconsistencies again, but I hoped you enjoyed. 
> 
> It is not a Klance fic without a 'bonding moment' reference.


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance, Keith and Kosmo have a cute moment in the morning, and Lance finally gets some answers, but the answer comes with even more questions.

Lance awoke to a gentle pressure to his forehead, and he sighed into it.

The gentle strokes reminded him of his mama, how she would comfort him when he was sick, or was just having a bad day. It made him feel safe, loved.

He hummed at the feeling and nuzzled his head into something warm. He heard a faint chuckle through the haziness of his sleepy state, making him sigh in question.

He was almost startled by the noise, but he found it soothed him.

As the noise died down he frowned, turning his head in still hazy confusion, and ever so slowly, he blinked his sticky eyelashes apart.

When he had cleared his burly vision, he could see that his head was rested on Keith’s chest, and it was in fact him who was slowly stroking his forehead. He also felt a dip in the mattress by his feet, and he looked down the expanse of the bed to see Kosmo sleeping soundly. The sight made him smile. 

It felt so… domestic.

But he refused to follow that train of thought, it was dangerous in war, and also in the fiction he was currently living.

A selfish part of him however, let himself enjoy the feeling of Keith’s hands on his forehead, the feeling of Kosmo at his feet.

He let himself enjoy the sound of Keith’s steady heartbeat under his ear, the feeling of knowing that Keith had a small smile on his face because he was looking at him.

He let himself enjoy Keith, he let himself be selfish, because soon enough, all of this would be over.

It would become nothing but a bittersweet memory for him, and nothing but a memory of annoyance or embarrassment for Keith.

He felt Keith shift closer to him, pressing a gentle kiss to the crown of his head, but not parting. Keith hummed against his skin. “You’re so beautiful.”

Lance sighed and nestled further into Keith’s chest, drawing another chuckle from him.

He let himself indulge as much as he could, but he found the moment was interrupted by a heavy pressure to his foot. 

tartled, he turned to see Kosmo excitedly stumbling up towards their heads, tongue lolling from his mouth in an almost grin, and he smiled.

As soon as Kosmo got close enough he dragged his sand-paper like tongue across Lance’s face, sitting on him almost completely, eliciting a giggle from him. 

“Kosmo! Okay! I’m awake!”

He tried to shove Kosmo off of him, but he was having none of it, licking across Lances hair with vigour, making him screech. “No, Kos! Not the hair!” 

Keith, who was so far unaffected by Kosmo’s attacks, laughed beside him, and Lance gasped.

Keith met his eyes with a cheeky grin, and Lance glared back with his own small smile, Kosmo still trying to groom him.

He grabbed Kosmo’s muzzle and pointed it towards Keith, who’s eyes widened as Kosmo eagerly leaned closer, starting to lick at him as well.

Lance laughed loudly as Kosmo licked large stripes up Keith’s head, making his already messy bed-head stick up in every which way, wet with doggy drool. Lance couldn’t imagine he looked any better himself, but the drained look on Keith’s face as he gave up trying to shield himself made it all the better.

When Kosmo had finally deemed his grooming satisfactory, he teleported away, giving Lance a full view of the very messy and slightly surprised Keith in all his glory.

And as soon as he caught even a glimpse he burst out laughing. “Even your cosmic wolf hates your mullet.”

Keith frowned bitterly and Lance laughed harder.

“he groomed you too dork.”

Lance huffed. “But I look good Keefers.”

Keith gave him an unamused stare, and he smothered his own laugh into his hand. 

****

After a little while longer of bickering, the two decided it was best to clean themselves up… separately, of course. 

The showers on Rezala were very strange though, it sprayed a mist into the air that cleaned you in a matter of two minutes, not requiring you to even move. It was almost like a sauna.

But Lance felt that nothing could beat a nice hot shower with his favourite smelling shampoo, regardless of cool engineering, it just wasn’t the same. 

He felt that Pidge would like this type better though.

Lance had gone first and was in and out quite quickly. He dressed into his clothes for the day in a flurry. Today’s wardrobe was some jean-like material pants, with a tight three quarter length baby blue shirt that fit loosely around his waist, flowers on his back.

The flowers kinda matched where his scar was too, he thought that was a nice coincidence. 

He passed Keith on his way out and blew a kiss to him as he exited the door, Keith rolled his eyes.

He was acting so much like himself Keith. He had been the whole time, spare for the ‘I love you’s’ and pet names, Keith was still acting like Keith.

He wasn’t drunk in love, nor was he delirious in his memory; though he was sweeter to him and they spent more time together, he was still… normal.

That was probably the hardest part to deal with.

Lance was planning on going to the med bay, there, Hunk and Pidge were waiting with Dr. Belee. They said they had the results for their ‘symptom testing’, and those were results Lance was very eager to hear.

They had been working all night for these answers, so Lance would be sure to show his appreciation later, but currently, he was far too excited.

His body was practically overflowing with anticipation, he had wondered why all of this had happened since day one, and he was so looking forward to finding out.  
It wouldn’t be a fix to all of his problems, not for a long shot, but it would help soothe his mind of the questions constantly buzzing around in it. 

He just really needed something to make sense.

But as he was walking out the door, a hand caught his shoulder, and he swears he could have screamed. Though as he turned around, he was met with a smiling Shiro, and Lance figured he could be patient. 

Patience yields focus after all.

Shiro released his shoulder and gestured to the door, “Where are you headed?”

Lance frowned. “I’m meeting Hunk and Pidge in the med - bay, why?”

“I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay. You’ve been under a lot of pressure this week.”

The answer made Lance smile, and this one was a little more genuine. “I’ve been better, but it’s over tomorrow anyway. Where’s everyone else?”

Shiro’s eyebrows drew together slightly as Lance dodged the question, but he soon after brightened and pointed down the hall. “Everyone else is at the ceremony room, I’ll be going there in a minute, I just wanted something to eat first. Are you three going?”

Lance craned his head to the door. “Nah, we’re all watching Keith, you guys have fun though.”

Shiro chuckled at Lance’s urgency to leave and he shoed him away. “Go on then, we’ll see you later.”

Lance beamed and rushed out the door, waving dramatically back at Shiro. “See you dad!”

He faintly heard Shiro’s laughter behind him, but the noise grew quiet as he made it father down the halls.

****

He burst through the door with almost dramatic vigour, but no one looked up to his greet him and he scoffed half-heartedly. “Rude.”

Hunk was the first to stick his head up, followed by Dr. Belee, but Pidge’s eyes were glued to the screen.

Hunk seemed stressed, like he had been caught in the middle of murder, that sort of look scared Lance a little. Hunk had only ever looked like that when he was keeping secrets, which he was comically bad at keeping. Though it was off-putting, it only made Lance want to know more.

Dr. Belee had an empathetic look on their face, like they were in on mean gossip about him and sympathised, making Lance impossibly more determined.

He immediately made for the screen, but Hunk was quick to intercept, holding him back by the shoulders. He directed him to a chair behind the screen, forcing him to sit down, unable to see the screen at all.

Lance stared at him incredulously, making Hunk smile sweetly. “Okay, we’ll tell you but don’t freak out.”

Lance nodded slowly with twisted brows, and his heart beat a little faster in his chest.

Pidge looked up from the screen to meet Lance’s eyes with a knowing smile, and he frowned. She looked at him like he was in on the joke, which he was not.  
And he was getting sick of it. 

He crossed his arms and squeezed them against his chest. “Will you tell me?”

Dr. Belee nodded and tapped on the screen, making the room dark and drawing up a hologram. It was similar to that of the hologram in the throne room, but this screen separated him from the others, displaying the information to him that he guessed they could see on the screen.

“Here we have all of those infected by the hallucination bug. They vary in species and size, so we discounted the theory of his genetics changing the symptoms.” Dr. Belee stated from the other side, as many different aliens were displayed briefly in front of him, all of their faces in little squares.

Pidge sighed. “Hunk refused to let it go, but nope, definitely not species.”

Hunk grumbled from the side. “It was a good guess.”

“Indeed, but that was not the case.”

Pidge sighed. “We also tested the spot he was bitten, but again, nothing.”

Lance huffed impatiently. “The point guys?”

Hunk chuckled a little uncomfortably and Dr. Belee continued. “The symptoms were all the same for the others, they all had some form of death included in their hallucination. Some thought they were dying, some thought they were already dead, it was quite the phenomenon.”

The hologram rushed a list of their symptoms over the screen and then shut down, revealing Pidge’s face, and her small smirk. “But all of them were in the cave alone.”

Lance’s eyes widened and he dug his fingernails into his palms sharply. “So it’s my fault?”

Hunk shook his head, waving his arms in a cross. “No, no!… well, sort of? But no.”

Lance stared expectantly and Pidge shook her head with a small smile. “We had gotten as many of the others effected as we could to question, we managed four, including Keith.”

Dr. Belee hummed. “Yes, and we asked them all what they were thinking before they were bitten, after Pidge’s wonderful incite.”

Pidge smiled triumphantly and Hunk huffed.

“All except for Keith were thinking of death, that they would die, or were dying. But your Keith-“

Pidge interrupted, leaning closer to Lance against the screen. “Keith said he was thinking of you.”

Lance inhaled sharply. “What does that mean?”

Hunk moved to stand next to him. “What was the last thing you said to him before he got bitten?”

Lance sighed, fiddling with his fingers. “Let’s get out of here?”

Pidge rolled her eyes, “Before that?” she drawled.

Lance thought, trying his best to remember his words. 

“Why did you take it off!?” he shouted, tugging again at the fruit more frantically.

“Some sticky flower thing got on my face; I couldn’t see so… just hurry it up a little.”

Lance rolled his eyes and tugged harder. “Oh, bite me.”

Lance flushed and Pidge rose a brow. “Well?”

Lance hummed and wrung his hands, not meeting any of their eyes. “I may have told him to bite me?”

Everyone stared at him with slightly wide eyes, and Hunk even had the audacity to Laugh.

Dr. Belee shook their head with an amused smile, making Lance all the more embarrassed. “Not like that! like in a ‘stuff you’ kinda way!”

Pidge tilted their head. “Yeah well, that still made Keith think about dating you, so take it as you will.”

Lance gawked. “So the reason he’s hallucinating something different is because he thought about dating me when he was bitten? Why?”

Hunk sighed. “We don’t know why exactly but judging by how nice and stuff you guys are, it’s a good thing.”

Lance flailed his arms. “Good?”

“Meaning that he was thinking a relationship with you a positive thing when he was bitten, not a negative thing.” Dr. Belee added with a grin.

Hunk nudged his side teasingly. “Meaning he likes the idea.”

Lance stopped for a second, letting his brain catch up to the information he had just been told. Keith thought about him? Positively, he thought about dating him as a good thing? Did that mean he wanted to date him?

“That must be a mistake, Keith wouldn’t have- why would he?”

Dr. Belee smiled kindly. “We are one hundred percent sure that was the cause of his hallucination.”

Lance just stared at them with wide eyes and he opened his mouth to scream, face never changing expression, but Hunk slapped a hand over his mouth before he could make any sound.

“Dude, I said not to freak out!”

Pidge smirked again, waving her hand. “He’s hallucinating this whole relationship with you because…”

She trailed off, staring over his head. He rose an eyebrow and her but noticed that Hunk and Dr. Belee were doing the same, all staring at the door with similar same fear on their faces. Lance stared at them for a second longer before he slowly turned around as well.

To see Keith staring back at him.

Everyone had frozen, no one daring to talk until Keith broke the silence.

“What do you mean ‘hallucinating this whole relationship’? I’m not-“

Keith turned to Dr. Belee, eyes wide, then to Lance. 

He held his breath as he met Keith’s gaze, frustrated and desperate. “Lance, what do they mean?”

Lance opened and closed his mouth as he worked his brain, trying to think of an excuse.

But he had nothing. 

All of them were at a loss, what could they possibly say? 

Keith was to smart to fooled by this point.

It seemed they had given up on lying as Hunk waved his arms in front of him wildly, turning to Pidge with frantic eyes. “Lock the door!”

Dr. Belee waved their hand, not looking away from Keith’s horrified face. “The door can only be locked by the panel next to it.”

A loud growl ripped from Keith, and they all turned their attention back to him.

Lance saw only a snippet of Keith’s now almost completely pink eyes before he fell to the ground, holding his head. “What’s happening to me?”

His voice was deeper now, all words spoken through a growl, and Lance shuddered.

Pidge jumped from her seat and rushed towards Keith, pinning one of his arms to he ground, Hunk grabbing the other as fast as he could, but Keith was still thrashing brilliantly. “Let me go!”

As Keith spoke, the castle lights flickered to a darker shade, and they all looked around the room in a panic.

Hunk stuttered. “Lance! Come on buddy! He calmed down for you last time, you gotta do something!”

Lance rushed from his seat, taking Keith’s face in both his hands. 

Dr. Belee had moved to pin down his shoulders in aid, but none of them were much of a match to Keith now. Lance choked on his breath.

Keith refused to look him in the eye, continuing to fight the others grips. He held Keith’s cheeks tighter. “Keith, come on, you can fight this.”

Keith still did not meet his eyes. “Keith please!”

Everyone made noises of strain as Keith’s face painted with anger, pushing against them all, baring his now sharp teeth and growling loudly.

The lights flickered again and the ground shifted, aiding Keith in his attempt to escape, making them all stumble.

Lance’s grip almost slipped, and in a moment of desperation, he pushed himself forward, and pressed his lips to Keith’s harshly.

He held them there until Keith’s thrashing slowed, then pulling away with a light blush.

Keith stared at him in awe, and Lance gave a small smile, whispering softly. “It’ll be okay.”

He desperately hoped he wasn’t lying.

Then Keith stopped moving, falling limp in their grasps, and he tilted his head down like a cowering animal. The others released him like a hot potato.

Dr. Belee shouted at them to head to the door, and Hunk hoisted Lance up before he could argue.

Pidge punched and broke the inside panel, waiting for everyone else to get out before she closed the door, locking it using the external one. 

Hunk put Lance down and turned to Dr. Belee, leaving Lance to stare at the door with wide eyes.

Pidge gasped. “We have to tell the others, the flower-“

But she was interrupted with a more violent quake, and he fell onto his side, staring up at the wildly flickering lights in shock. 

“What is going on!?” He screeched.

Hunk huffed helping him up off of the ground. “No time! We gotta go!”

And then they were all running, running down the hall as fast as they could.

They stumbled often due to the ground shifting underneath them, and the flickering lights turning a more stable dark green in colour, a stark difference to their fair blue tone before.

Lance was scared, scared and confused out of his mind.

Keith might die, or he might become that pink eyed version of himself permanently. He was terrified for Keith; he didn’t want Keith to die, he didn’t want to leave him locked in that room alone.

He was terrified for the others who were with the flower, he was terrified it was too late for all of them.

Lance had no idea what was happening or how to feel about it. He had no idea what to do.

He said he’d cross the bridge when he got to it.

Well the bridge was now crumbling beneath their feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! I hope you liked it!
> 
> I'm beginning to think cliffhangers are my brand.   
> I am also very weak for Keith calling Lance beautiful.
> 
> I think I will have three or four more chapters to go, I might decide to stretch out certain parts a bit more though, so I'm not sure. 
> 
> Thanks for reading :DD


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They all run to get to the ceremony room, and yes, Keith is very strong.

They were all twisting and turning through the halls to reach the Alca ceremony room, following Dr. Belee. It was as if they were trying to race against time.

Lance ran like his life depended on it, sprinting along with the others as fast as his legs could carry him. His feet stung slightly at each impact to the ground, but his brain was far outrunning his body.

Lance still had no idea what was happening to the planet, why it was reacting the way it was, but he guessed it had something to do with that god forsaken fruit.

That fruit was bad news from the beginning, and he knew it, but he didn’t have it in him to be sour about it now.

The quakes were growing more violent as time went on, slowing them all down. Lance wasn’t sure they would make it in time. He couldn’t begin to imagine what was happening to the others inside the room, if this were what it was like on the outside.

His confusion was stifling, he just wanted to know what was happening, he had really only wanted to know what had been going on. That’s all he wanted as soon as Keith was bitten, the answers to his plethora of question. 

He hated being clueless, just as he hated being useless, and at the moment he was both. 

He knew nothing and could do nothing, while there were lives at stake. 

His friends lives…

And Keith.

They had left Keith in that room alone, unmedicated, entirely more confused than him. He knew what might happen to Keith, they all did, and yet they left him.

But there was nothing he could have done, right?

Lance could have stayed, could have kissed him better, he could have given Keith his own answers. He could have done something.

But what was that something?

He wanted to know the truth, wanted to know why, and now everyone was in danger. 

Because he couldn’t handle being the dumb one for a second longer, he just had to know, had to soothe himself. He had to ask questions too early, he was too eager, too loud, too scared.

Yet he still wanted to know why.

He wanted to know what was happening, why it was happening, how to stop it.

But he would wait for his answers this time, patience yields focus after all. 

And he needed to focus.

He focused on running, on staying up right, on following Dr. Belee, and when they had finally reached the ceremony room door, he focused on getting inside.

Silently, Dr. Belee pointed to the doors external panel, and Hunk nodded, acting quickly. He punched at the doors panel, but it refused to open, and Hunk turned to them with wide eyes. “It’s not breaking!”

Dr. Belee moved to inspect it, “I don’t-“ they took their own hit as well, only to draw back and shake their hand with a small hiss. “This one must be better protected than the others, we cannot open it with force.”

Hunk looked back at the panel nervously, wringing his hands. “Pidge, you gonna hack this or something?”

Pidge tapped furiously at the door panel, coaxing buzzes from it with every wrong code she gave, each beep of the small box making them all cringe. She shouted. “Know the code?”

Dr. Belee shook their head, making Pidge groan, and she turned back to Hunk. “Or something.”

Lance gave a small smile as Pidge did, but the ground shuddered again, and Lance yelped. The force and proximity of this quake knocked everyone to the ground, all realising similar ‘oofs’.

Lance’s head whipped around, looking for his friends as he stood again. He could think of no way in, even Pidge could not manage it. He dug deep into his mind for ideas, grasping for straws. “What about Lew and Marla?”

Dr. Belee shook their head, pointing to the door, “In there.” Lance expected as much.

They had no Bayard’s, no way in, no code, no nothing. 

Then they had no light.

Hunk screamed as the lights went out completely, and though it was still the morning, the dimness made it feel late at night. Pidge made an aggravated noise as she slammed her had against the panel on last time, obviously achieving no result. “This stupid flower!”

He figured it was not the time to ask.

Lance turned around, searching the corridor behind them for any light source, and he did. He noticed a very faint glow in the distance, and he squinted to see it more clearly. But it seemed to becoming to them. The small light turned out to be two, and they were also a bright pink in colour.

Two pink lights.

“Uh guys?”

Everyone turned to him at once, and he pointed towards the lights. The others squinted as he had and took a few steps closer, while he took steps back. He knew what that was.

“Keith!”

Pidge gasped, whipping to face him. “What?”

And from the darkness, Keith emerged, stalking towards them with bared teeth. His features became more obvious as he approached, but Lance noticed that they seemed wrong. His mouth was raised in a snarl and he was growling viciously. His stance showed he was ready for a fight. Keith’s eyes were glowing that horrible bright pink, void of emotion.

And his hair was a mess.

Lance’s mind flooded back to that morning, when Kosmo had given him a hair-do. It reminded him of how Keith had seemed tired, but happy, as his hair had stuck out any which way.

This messy hair was wrong.

“Uh, how did he get out?” Pidge spoke over Keith’s growls, backing away to Lance’s side.

Dr. Belee gasped. “He must have opened the door!”

Hunk huffed, waving his arms towards Lance, pointing at him like he had wanted to be picked for an award. “If he opened it, he could open this one, right? Lance tell him to open the door!”

Lance screeched as Keith turned to him, ignoring everyone else completely. He desperately tried to hold Hunk’s hands down, but he already had Keith’s full attention. “What Hunk, why would you try and get him to eat me?”

Pidge tittered nest to him, giving the faintest of smiles. “You did tell him to bite you.”

Lance gasped, “Wha- Pidge!” she snickered.

Dr. Belee gave him a nervous smile as they ushered them all away from the door, giving Keith access without anyone in the way, Lance moved to the side as well. “He is fond of you; he will not eat you I am sure.”

Lance groaned as Keith stalked towards him, staring him down like he was prey to be killed. “You don’t know that!”

“You have to get him to do it Lance!” Hunk hollered, and he knew he was right.

At a small loss, he took a chance to poke fun at the growling Keith, and he tapped his thighs. “Alright then, come here Keithy boy!”

Keith seemed to faulter at his words, standing almost frozen for a few seconds, and Lance moved closer.

Pidge however, didn’t seem to notice that, and she slapped her forehead. “We’re going to die.”

Lance shushed her loudly and slowly made his way to Keith. He just stood there as Lace approached, expression seemingly conflicted. Though his eyes were still void.  
Lance rested his hands on Keith’s shoulders as he got there, pressing down gently as he if he could ground Keith with it. 

He knew that maybe he was asking too much of Keith now, Keith had already been fighting. He had already done what Lance asked once.

But they needed to open that door, and Keith could do it.

He took in a breath. “Okay Keith, I have one more request, sorry. Do you think you can bust down this door for us?”

Keith stared at him for a few moments, and Lance smiled hopefully. Keith turned to the door slowly, and he heard Hunk’s faint mumble of ‘oh my god its working’ over his shoulder. 

He would remember to be upset at Hunk for that later.

Lance let go of Keith’s shoulders, but he did not seem to notice, now dead set on destroying that door. He began to growl again, turning back to vicious in seconds. Lance hopped out of his way like a scared rabbit.

Then Keith charged for the door.

He huffed as he reached the door and placed his hands in the small gap between both sides. He pushed. He pushed with all of his force and the door began to open with the loud crunch of bending metal.

He continued to open it with his inhuman strength and Lance stared at him in awe. He knew that Keith was strong, he had seen Keith fight all of their grips only a few days prior. 

But Keith was doing this because he asked him to, and he asked him to while he was very well dying or losing his state of mind, himself. Yet he still listened.  
Keith was stronger than what Lance ever thought possible.

A large growl ripped from his throat as he gave one final shove, creating a gap big enough for them to all slip through. Keith charged through the door.

Pidge raced in after him to shout a warning to the others, and Lance entered last.

He physically stopped to take it all in.

The whole room seemed cracked, the concrete on the floor broken and sticking up in places, all centring around the Huagra. The plant had turned a sickening green and was thrashing wildly in the centre of the room, spilling some of the green attached to it to the floor. The vines that were connected to it all along the walls were also spilling with that green, it seemed almost like quintessence. 

Lance also remembered hearing that those vines were what connected the whole planet, all through this now corrupted flower. 

Which means everything else was like this too, the whole planet.

Ruler Sushmar and Allura were both standing on a higher platform, overlooking the plant. They were pushing against the green with their quintessence, trying to reign it in. It was the same sickening green as the castles lights had before they went out. 

Raymon was holding the fruit in the corner of the room, trying to separate it from the flower. It seemed mostly untouched save for a small cut to its flesh, though that small cut was leaking the green. It looks as though they had barely even begun the ceremony.

Shiro, Lew, Marla, Krolia, Romelle and Coran were all trying to hold the flower still, all pushing against it on different sides. The flower shook in their grasp, causing the quakes, and cracking the stone floors further. 

Shiro turned his head as Pidge shouted, and then he saw Keith. His eyes widened. “What happened to him?”

Pidge frowned, moving to help push against the flower. “He found out.”

Shiro gasped, and the rest of them moved to help hold the Huagra. Keith followed them though, and was lunging towards a shouting Coran, so Krolia broke off. “I shall keep him at bay while you work.” Then she intercepted him.

Shiro nodded sagely and Lance applied as much pressure to the plant as he could. Its petals squirmed uncomfortably beneath his fingers. 

He turned to Marla, who was standing next to him, and looking very out of breath. “How long have you been holding it off?”

They sighed, giving a weak smile. “Not long.”

Somehow he didn’t believe that.

Allura and ruler Sushmar huffed with their efforts, but their combined power was seemed to make no difference.

“This is not working; we must try something else!” Allura yelled.

Coran nodded in agreement and shoved at the flower with more force. “Perhaps we should destroy it?”

All of the Rezaian’s gasped like they had been struck. Raymon had walked over to join then, and Lance saw that Kosmo was now holding the fruit. The sight made him smile a little.

Ruler Sushmar rolled their head towards the Huagra, and Raymon joined them at the platform, adding their quintessence to the others. 

“We cannot destroy the Huagra, it has been our only source of power for thousands of years!” Lew shrilled from the other side.

Shiro frowned, turning to the ruler. “We may not have a choice.”

Ruler Sushmar shook their head, focused on using their magic. “We will not destroy our sacred Huagra, besides, we could not harm its face, it is too strong.”

Lance wished he could have Keith’s dry commentary at the moment, a witty comment would have really calmed his nerves.

But Keith could provide no commentary other than growls and roars as he fought his own mother to try and kill them all.

“What about the stem?” Pidge shouted over the noise.

Dr. Belee gasped. “genius Pidge!”

Romelle turned to Allura with a look of desperation. “We cannot hold it off, the magic isn’t working.”

Ruler Sushmar frowned, pushing harder. “It would take a fine shot to hit the stem correctly, which we do not have.”

Shiro faced him with a grin. “Well we happen to have our own sharpshooter!” Lance smiled at the praise.

Ruler Sushmar still did not yield. “No! our Huagra is sacred! We do not even know what is happening to it, we cannot kill it now!”

Hunk faced the ruler, his brows drawn tightly together. “Look, It’s corrupted! You have no choice but to kill it!”

They only yelled. “You do not know our Huagra! I am sorry paladin, but we cannot-“

Raymon met Hunks eyes and they nodded, realising their quintessence. Allura released her own as well, and ruler Sushmar stared at the two of them, angry and horrified. Raymon turned back to them, face looking sombre. “Paladins, you know better than we do about how to fix this. You must do it; our people will die if you do not.”

The ground gave a horrific shudder, making everyone fall away from the flower. Ruler Sushmar screamed.

“No! Do not dare my child! We cannot throw away our history when we-“

“We must or we are lost, history cannot save us now ruler, I am sorry.” They pushed against the ruler with their quintessence, trying to pin them into place, frowning harshly as they shouted. 

“My child! I will not allow-“

“Do it paladins, quickly!” They interrupted. 

Everyone had been thrown away from the Huagra, and now with no restraint, it was moving violently, shaking the ground. Though this made its stem exposed, and Lance knew he at least had a shot.

Shiro shouted at him from across the room, but he could barely hear what was being said over the noise. In the corner of his eye he saw Keith and his mother on the floor as well, though Keith seemed determined to win the fight, and was crawling over to her with an animalistic expression. Krolia seemed to be losing.

He closed his eyes, trying to blink away his welling tears, and he drew in a breath. “I need a gun!”

Coran reached out his hand to Marla next to him, who had been knocked out against the wall, but they had also been carrying a gun. He stretched his arm to reach and snagged it quickly from their belt. He looked at Lance from across the room, and he slung back his arm, “Here my boy!” Then he flung it forward.

Lance had to dive forward to catch it, scraping his arm and torso harshly on the broken concrete floor, but his adrenaline was so high he could barely feel a thing.  
He adjusted his grip on the gun and held his finger to the trigger, taking a breath and waiting for the perfect shot. Patience yields focus.

“Trabaja, por favor.” (please work) he whispered.

And as soon as he saw a glimpse of pale green.

He shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! 
> 
> So. a little bit of action. I promise the answers to what was going on there will come.
> 
> This was pretty fun to be honest, I tried to go for suspense,,, not really sure if that worked out. regardless, I hope you enjoyed!


	8. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Does Lance make the shot?....  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> Yes, who do you take him for? - _ -

Lance lay on the floor, eyes wide and breathing hard.

The world felt like it was moving in slow motion, the sounds echoing through the broken room white noise to his ears.

He knew he was bleeding; he felt a slight sting, but that feeling was nothing compared to his raging heartbeat. 

A loud crack rang out through the air as the blast made impact, and he held his breath as he watched it. But then there was a blaring noise. 

As soon as the shot went through, the flower seemed to scream at them, almost deafeningly as it tried to show them its pain.

Everyone moved to cover their ears, and Lance curled into himself, cupping his hands over his head as he tried to block out the horrible noise.

But no matter how hard he tried; the blaring did not yield, it never quietened to his hears. He squeezed his eyes shut. 

He tried to occupy his mind as he stared at his eyelids, he watched as spots of colour bloom over his eyes. Out of curiosity, he opened them.

It was the green. The green had taken over ever part of the room, consuming all of it. Even himself. 

It made him feel sick, like something was crawling underneath his skin all over his body, trying to peel a layer off all at once and from the inside. All he saw was that green, it was all green.

But then there was pink.

He looked over to see Keith, pink glowing eyes wide, the green was all over him as well. 

And he was screaming.

He was screaming like he was being burnt alive, like someone was carving away at him from the inside. Like he was feeling whatever Lance was tenfold. 

Krolia next to Keith looked as panicked as Lance felt, but they couldn’t move yet, the blaring, the green. 

It was pinning them all down. 

Lance looked at the Huagra, fallen over and dead. He had made the shot, that was obvious. But the stem was leaking out the green. It was leaking it out like a hose, spilling it everywhere. 

He looked over at the others. Pidge seated was next to Kosmo, covering his ears instead of her own, and Lance wished he could move to cover her ears for her. 

Hunk was beside Coran, curling into himself, similar to how Lance was. Coran was plugging his ears and squeezing his eyes shut, face like he had eaten a lemon.

Shiro was on his side, pressing his head to the ground, trying to use the ground as an earplug for the ear he didn’t have an arm for. 

Allura, ruler Sushmar and Raymon had all crowded together, ruler Sushmar enclosing them in their arms, shielding them from the noise.

He couldn’t see any of the other Rezaian’s from behind the flowers head, but he couldn’t imagine they were any better.

They were all immobile, none of them could do anything. Then he looked at Keith.

Tears had welled in his eyes as he continued screaming, and those who could turned to face him.

Krolia was trying her hardest to reach out to him, but her arm wouldn’t get close enough. Keith didn’t seem to notice either, not sparing her a glance.

Lance frowned as he inhaled sharply, there was nothing he could do, nothing any of them could. His mind was going haywire, he couldn’t think straight, not with the Huagra infecting his brain. 

He stared at Keith as his body tensed, and he watched as he writhed in pain. 

His own pain was welling up as well, the sting from his impact burned in his arm and stomach, he could feel the wetness of his blood.

He hissed as small stones from the ground made contact with his wounds, but he did not take his eyes off of Keith.

Then their eyes met. 

Keith stared at him, mouth agape in a silent scream, tears in his glowing pink eyes. Lance felt his own tears well up as well. 

Keith closed and opened his mouth, it looked like he was trying to say something, but Lance couldn’t hear what it was. Then he fell to the ground.

“Keith!” Lance screamed at him, and Krolia fought as hard as she could to move closer to him, only managing to graze his arm as she shouted his name as well.

A shock went through his body, and he jolted. 

Then there was a pull in his bones. 

Lance screamed, it felt like someone was trying to suck out his organs, he felt like he was being ripped apart. Everyone else screamed as well, but Lance couldn’t turn to look, couldn’t open his eyes, or he was afraid they would fly from his skull.

But his skin felt less… wrong on his body with the pull. His arms felt better, like he could move them. 

He opened his eyes as the feeling passed his face, and the pulling loosened its grip on him. He saw the green was moving again, this time back towards the plant, and he blinked in astonishment. 

He stared at it until it was all back inside, and a bright light invaded his vision as soon as the last was sucked inside. He cowered away.

Then silence.

When the light was gone, he saw the room was back to its normal shade, and the plant had capped itself, sealing it in.

As soon as he was able to move, he got up, and on shaky legs, made his way to the others. “Is everyone alright?”

He stumbled as he made his way over to Pidge and Kosmo, sitting down on the opposite side of the wolf to stroke his ears in an attempt to calm him. Pidge shook her head. “That was not what I expected.”

Lance gave a little laugh as Kosmo leaned into his petting, and his gaze landed on Keith.

Krolia was cradling him as he lay in her lap, whispering to him, but Lance still couldn’t see if he were moving or not. He bit his lip.

Pidge groaned, leaning further on Kosmo. “Ugh I can’t move.”

Ruler Sushmar released their arms from around Allura and Raymon, silently making their was over to the small stump that was left behind. They frowned as they stared at it.

Raymon looked conflicted, and Allura placed a hand on their shoulder, nodding her head. 

They both seemed to share a grief for the loss of the Huagra, though ruler Sushmar seemed more angry than upset.

Shiro sat up and rubbed his head, looking over at Keith with concern, then at the ruler. 

Ruler Sushmar turned away from the stump like they had been slapped, looking at what Lance guessed was Dr. Belee. Their eyes were sombre. “You shall explain to me what has just happened here. You will tell me why we needed to lose our Huagra. But we shall wait until after all has received medical attention.”

They spoke sharply, and Lance heard no response, so he assumed they nodded. 

Ruler Sushmar walked behind the flower head and emerged holding Marla in their arms. Raymon tried to say something, but they brushed them off, turning back to Dr. Belee and nodding their head to the mangled door. “We shall all go to the med – bay at once.”

Raymon looked crestfallen as they watched their parent leave, Dr. Belee in tow. Lance gave them a sympathetic look. “They will understand what you did was for the best.”

They nodded at him, but with no smile. 

****

Lance didn’t get a chance to talk to Keith before he passed out again in the med – bay. Some new doctors had also come to treat them all, though Lance didn’t spare them much attention.

Keith and Marla were treated with the most urgency, then Krolia and Lance. 

Now that he had time to properly feel his injury’s, they more thank stung, he could even feel all of the small rocks that were lodged inside. He felt heavy where he sat.  
The room was very quiet, no one really spoke unless answering a doctors question, Lance absolutely hated the atmosphere. 

He wanted so badly to break it, to make a joke and get everyone to either groan or chuckle tiredly, he wanted something. 

But he couldn’t help but feel the blame was pinned on him. 

He was the one that made the shot, the one that killed the Huagra. He was sure the Rezaian’s hated him, especially the ruler. He couldn’t look anyone in the eye.

The worst part wasn’t he didn’t even know what exactly he did, if he saved everyone or made things worse, because he didn’t understand what had happened. 

He was so tired.

His body felt so heavy, he just wanted to fall.

He saw small black spots cloud his vison, and he tried to blink them away, but they only grew.

He tried to fight it, but he was so tired. Eventually he gave it, and he let himself close his eyes.

****

When he felt himself regain consciousness, he felt considerably more comfortable than when he had lost it. He slowly blinked his eyes open to take in his surroundings. 

He saw that he was still in the med - bay, but he had been moved to a bed, probably because he passed out. He turned his head to the side, seeing Keith sitting in the chair next to him, eyes concerned as he stared down at Lance.

Oh, Keith. he thought.

That’s nice of him to sit with me.

Then he jumped upwards in his bed.

He saw that everyone else who had been in the ceremony room was awake and watching him, his head spun with the speed that he had lurched forward.

“Woah, Lance.” He felt a hand push him backwards into his pillow, and he groaned. 

He sat up again more slowly and leaned against the wall, pointedly not looking at Keith. “What happened?”

Shiro smiled softly. “When you were scratched some of that green stuff went into your wound, so you got pulled at with more force than the rest of us and passed out.”

Lance nodded his head slowly, and Hunk spoke up. “You gave everyone a real scare buddy, don’t do that.”

He laughed a little as he met Hunks eyes. 

“Now that the red paladin has awoken, you will explain what has just happened. We are all dying to know.” Ruler Sushmar spoke again, the same sharpness to their voice as they had before, and Lance cringed.

Dr. Belee swallowed nervously, nodding their head. “Well, you see… when the black paladin was bitten, it also effected the fruit the same way, since the fruit and the bugs are connected.” They tittered. “When you put even some of the magic of the fruit into the Huagra, the bite effected that as well.”

Pidge sighed. “As you know, the venom had that defence mechanism I talked about earlier, the one that made Keith have pink eyes and become freakishly strong.”

At their confused looks, she gave a weak smile, “So you know how antibodies fight sicknesses within the body?” They all nodded. “Well this venom used Keith’s actual body to fight medicines before they evened reached his bloodstream.” They ‘ahhed’.

“It also worked the same with emotional shock, or emotional damage. So when Keith found out about the hallucination, the antibodies activated again, to try and stop whatever was causing it.” 

Lance turned to Keith, who was watching Pidge intently. Was he okay now? 

Keith caught Lance looking at him and gave him a small smile, making Lance blush. He wondered how much he remembered. If he was upset.

Hunk piped up. “So when Keith would turn pink eyed, the fruit would do the same thing, it would go haywire until Keith calmed down, we just couldn’t tell since it’s an object.”

Pidge hummed. “We figured that out when some of the people looking after it had complaints about it glowing pink, it was easy to connect the dots.”

Dr. Belee smiled. “We figured that as long as Keith didn’t know about the hallucination, everything would be safe, and that would have happened exactly.”

Hunk frowned. “Then he found out.”

Ruler Sushmar crossed their arms, turning to Hunk. “So because we had already added a little of the fruit to the Huagra, it would also react the same as Keith.”  
He nodded. “Yes, which was why it went crazy at the same time as Keith did.”

Keith wouldn’t stop frowning during everything, and Lance’s heart squeezed. He knew Keith probably felt bad about turning all scary, but if it wasn’t for him, they wouldn’t have been able to get into the room. 

Lance would tell him that later. Unless he remembered it, then he would remind him.

“We knew that the only way to stop Keith if he ever found out and turned pink eyed, was to either kill him, of destroy the fruit. Which obviously neither were good options.”

Dr. Belee looked at ruler Sushmar, who seemed less upset and more intrigued. “But after the fruit had transferred the bites power onto the flower, it would have been pointless destroying the fruit. The only option was to kill the Huagra, or the whole planet would have been destroyed by its force, it would only stop if Keith died before it.”

Hunk raised his hand. “Which, obviously, we couldn’t do.”

Lance’s own eyes widened with everyone else’s in the room. It all made so much sense now. 

Ruler Sushmar seemed to understand that as well. “I-I am sorry paladins, for the way that I acted. You saved my planet.” They turned to Raymon. “My child, I am proud of you, you saved our planet. You will far surpass me.”

Raymon smiled sheepishly as ruler Sushmar wrapped their arms around them in a tight hug, and Hunk cooed. 

Lew hummed, leaning their head against Marla’s shoulder. “But my ruler, what about our power, will we grow a new Huagra?”

Ruler Sushmar turned to them , a solemn frown on their face. “We will have to, but it will take deca-phoebs before we are able to have any sort of power to out planet, you understand why I was so protective of it. Now we will have no life.”

Lance winced as they spoke, not meeting their eyes.

Allura gave a smile, and she tapped the rulers shoulder. “Actually ruler, I may be able to help with that.”

****

It turns out, that Allura’s magical alchemy thing, can do a whole lot of things.

It can revive people, Lance would know.

It can revive planets, and, it can revive plants too.

Ruler Sushmar was over the moon when Allura told them that she could heal the Huagra, all of the Rezaian’s were.

The ruler had eagerly asked when Allura would be available to do so, and they left shortly after the conversation had ended.

The Alteans and Rezaian’s had wanted to go as well, which ruler Sushmar had no problem with.

It brightened Lance’s mood entirely, to see ruler Sushmar back to their chipper and bubbly self. He was sure it was the same with everyone. The conversation flowed easily after they had first smiled again.

Before they had made their way back to the ceremony room however, ruler Sushmar stopped and turned to Lance. 

“Red paladin Lance, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for us. Not only have you and the Black paladin given us fruit for the first time in deca-phoebs.” They nodded to Keith. “But you have also saved us from certain peril. You have much skill paladin, and you have a kind soul, your team is lucky to have you.”  
Lance almost burst into tears then and there as they bowed to him with a smile. Shiro was looking at him like the proudest parent in the universe, and Hunk and Allura beamed at him. Pidge even gave him some finger guns, making him laugh wetly. 

When he turned to Keith, he had a small smile on his face, eyes crinkling in the corners. Lance knew that smile.

It was the same smile he would give him when they woke up together in the mornings, full of fondness. Lances heart skipped a beat.

For the first time in a while, Lance felt extremely proud of himself, he really did save this whole planet didn’t he?

Yeah he did!

When the ruler had left, they had stared up a new conversation, and Lance knew that they would eventually have to talk about it.

“What I don’t understand, is why Keith hallucinated what he did. If you say everyone else hallucinated death, why was Keith different?” Shiro inquired, and Lance blushed slightly.

So did Keith.

Pidge turned to Keith, raising an eyebrow. “Do you know?”

He shook his head. 

“Do you want to?”

He sighed. “I suppose.”

Lance bit his lip.

Pidge gave him an uncertain look then she turned to Lance, he shrugged. “If he wants to know then he should know?”

He didn’t really want to deal with this now, he was still a little drowsy from passing out, and his wounds still stung, but Keith had a right to know after what had happened to him. He should know.

Pidge nodded slowly and Lance . “The victims hallucinated the last thing they thought of when they were bitten, Keith thought of dating Lance, the others thought of dying, can’t tell you which is worse.”

Lance gasped, drawing the hand that Keith had been holding to his chest, and he glared at Pidge. She just snickered. He could see Keith tense in the corner of his eye.  
Shiro coughed into his hand. “Oh.”

Hunk laughed. “Well, Lance did tell Keith to bite him.“

Lance turned to glare at him when Shiro laughed. “Ha-ha okay, yes Hunk very funny. I did not mean it that way, obviously.”

Keith didn’t laugh though; he didn’t even smile. Lance felt dread set deep in his stomach. He knew the whole that this would happen. He knew the whole time. He had tried so hard not to show it. He promised not to get his hopes up, and he didn’t!

Shiro hummed humorously. “How much do you remember Keith?”

Keith frowned harder. “All of it.”

Lance flinched. 

Keith turned his head away from them all an sighed. “I get why you didn’t tell me, and I’m sorry about that but- I just- It’s a lot to process.”

Yet it still hurt. 

It always would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> Okay so I planned to include more in this chapter, but it was getting to long and I was struggling a bit with writing some parts, but I wanted to post a chapter, so here we are?
> 
> I'm sorry if this is bad, I did try :((( 
> 
> Cliffhangers are my brand, I have decided this right now. Also the ball is still happening if you are wondering. Will I put Lance in a dress...? If I don't I'll be surprised.


	9. Chapter Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance's friends suck a little, and Krolia is just trying to help her son get a boyfriend.
> 
> Does it work?

Keith left shortly after, waving them off with the excuse that he was tired, but Lance knew better than to believe him. Shiro went after him almost as soon as Keith was out the door, saying that he wanted to check on him, typical of him. Though Krolia decided to stay behind.

And he kept staring at Lance. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out why, but he was starting to worry. Was she mad at him? 

Lance knew what a mad mother looked like though, death glares like you’ve never seen before.

He would know, his mama would often have to death glare his teachers from school, not his proudest moments, but he was happy his mama had his back.

This was not it. This was intrigued, which relieved him to some extent.

Pidge and Hunk didn’t talk about him and Keith since Krolia was around, but they sent him looks that implied they were trying to get him to tell her, but he refused. There was no point, and he was far too tired to deal with that now.

Someway through their conversations, the ground began to glow, and the lights turned back on, shining their nice pale blue once again. The glow remained for a little while longer before is disappeared, and they all smiled. Allura had been successful, not that he had any doubts.

Not to long after that ruler Sushmar had come in with Dr. Belee and Coran, holding Allura in their arms and setting her down on a bed beside him. Ruler Sushmar smiled down at her with tired joy, and Lance way glad to see that they were happy again. Everything managed to work out.

They had of course asked about Allura, but she just needed rest after the strenuous use of magic, so they left her to lie there, having a well-deserved nap. Pidge and Hunk decided to retire to their rooms as well, saying that they were tired also, But Krolia still stayed behind.

He was tired too, but he really didn’t want to have to sleep in the same bed as Keith again. Knowing Keith though, he would probably insist he sleep on the couch. Lance didn’t want to sleep alone either. He rubbed his eyes. Why was nothing easy?

Krolia hummed. “You should rest Lance.”

He nodded, sliding back down his bed to rest his head on the pillow. “I’ll sleep here.”

She scoffed lightly, and he turned to her in small shock, she smiled. “You should talk to him; it will only make both of you feel worse if you don’t. You are not upset with him are you?”

He was quick to shake his head. “No, of course not.”

She gave him a small nod. “Then he will not be with you, I shall escort you to your room.”

He tried to decline, but she insisted, saying he should have someone watch him were he to faint again. Krolia confused him greatly, he couldn’t tell if she liked him or not. He liked her, he thought she was funny, and she picked on Keith a lot too, which was a bonus. 

But when it came to how she acted towards him, she was always searching, always guarded. he didn’t know what exactly she was looking for, but it reminded him of Keith. 

He and Keith would act like that a lot in the past, try to look past each other’s facades. 

He gave one last glance at Allura as they made their way out the door, then he turned around to follow Krolia.

“Thank you Lance, for what you did with him.” She gave him a small smile, and he raised a brow.

“What do you mean?”

She turned back to facing ahead, and Lance did the same. “I honestly thought you were going to ‘break up’ with him on the first day.”

He paused at her bluntness, raising his hand to his chest. “What? Why?”

She sighed. “It would have been the smartest thing to do for yourself. You wouldn’t have had to participate in romantic activities with him, and he would have left you alone. Granted, he would have been heartbroken, but he wouldn’t have known about the hallucination. It would have saved you a lot of trouble. Even when you had the option to do so as he suspected you wanting to end the relationship, you still did not take it. you thought of his feelings. For that I thank you.”

His eyes widened, he honestly never really thought about breaking up with him. but he felt like he was getting to much credit, part of it was his own selfishness as well, him wanting to be close to Keith when he had the chance.

He didn’t really want to tell Krolia that though, so he stayed silent.

They continued down the path until they reached the lounge room door, and he walked in first. As he made his way further in, he saw that Shiro was sitting on the couch with Hunk, not spotting Keith, he released a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

Hunk and Shiro were grinning wickedly as they spoke, looking at each other with the same knowing smile. Lance blushed.

Hunk really couldn’t keep a secret could he?

Their smiles dropped slightly as they waved in greeting, and him and Krolia sat opposite them. “Hey Lance, how are you feeling?”

He sighed. “Tired and sore, but I’m glad everything worked out.”

Hunk beamed. “So am I! That was one wild ride.”

They all hummed. 

Shiro gasped lightly, and he pointed a finger upwards. “Oh! Ruler Sushmar told us that the Alca ceremony will take place tomorrow, but it will be halfway through the ball. The ball is also going to be continuing as planned. Romelle is going to take us all through wardrobe tomorrow, so be prepared for that.”

He chuckled. “I’m glad.”

Krolia gave a fond smile and nodded to his bedroom door. “Keith is in there?”

Shiro laughed. “Ruler Sushmar ordered him to stay in there, Pidge even took Kosmo so he couldn’t escape.”

Krolia laughed with him, but Lance was beginning to regret leaving the med – bay.

Hunk smiled. “You should go and talk to him.”

He laughed bitterly, and the others looked at him with confused expressions. “He won’t want to see me, you saw how weirded out he was before, I’ll leave him alone.”  
Krolia frowned at him, and he felt he had disappointed her, the weight of her stare dampening his mood. Shiro gave him a small smile. “It’s considerate of you to give him some space, but I talked with him and… I think it would be in your best interest to go and work things out.”

He wrung his hands “Should I apologise?”

Shiro hummed. “If you want to.”

Yeah, Shiro definitely knew more than he was letting on. He was just that little bit pushier, that little bit too happy. 

Oh Hunk told him alright.

He folded his arms over his lap, he needed to sleep, his body was tired, but his mind wouldn’t shut up. There was no way he would get any sleep until he at least knew what Keith was thinking, and he did not want to ruin that ball for himself by being tired. 

But…

Hunk rolled his eyes. “You will go now, or I will ban you from going to the ball.”

He widened his eyes. “What? You can’t do that!”

Hunk laughed. “Yes I can, remember, we made a rule.”

He always hated that rule.

“Shiro!” he whined, but Shiro only gave him a smug smile.

“I agree with Hunk, go talk to him or no ball.” 

He huffed. “I could wear a mask.”

Shiro rose his eyebrows humorously, and Krolia gave a small laugh. The two shared a look before Shiro broke into a grin. “Krolia and I will watch you.”

Sometimes, his friends were the best friends in the universe.

“Fine!”

Sometimes though, they absolutely sucked.

****

Lance stood at the door for about two minutes, just staring at it.

He didn’t want to do this; but he was so tired.

He knew what would happen anyway, Keith would say ‘no homo’ and he would laugh, they would go their separate ways and Keith would probably get married to Lance’s sister or something. Lance would be his sisters brides maid, and he would have to watch as they had their first kid named Lance, in honour of his and Keith’s amazing friendship. 

Whilst Lance would be stuck pining off to the side. 

He was… very tired.

And he fell to hard; he always did.

He knew Keith was different though, he knew that this time he had really fallen. He didn’t expect he would ever find his way out of the hole he had dug for himself.  
How much did he really want to go to that ball anyway?

He would have to face Keith eventually though, so why not rip off the band aid?

He slammed his hand against the panel before he could think any better of it.

Keith, who was sitting on their bed, turned to look at him with wide eyes. Lance stood nervously at the doorway. He didn’t really plan any further than this. 

They stared at each other for a few more seconds before Lance broke the silence. “Hey Keefers, watcha doing?”

It sounded so forced and uncomfortable that Lance wanted to kick himself. Keith looked at him uncertainly, and he nodded to his lap. “I was reading.”

He smiled, walking closer to Keith and peering over his shoulder. “What book?”

“It’s called ‘bordem eats the weblum’, Coran gave it to me.”

Lance nodded, flipping some pages, not bothering to look at any words. “Sounds boring.”

Keith snapped the book shut and Lance pulled his hand away with a yelp. Keith smiled, but it disappeared quickly.

“Mean.” 

Keith met his eyes again and frowned, shaking his head. “Not to be rude or anything, but why are you here?”

Lance faltered. “I- I wanted to talk?” Which was… partly true.

Keith laughed bitterly. “Or you wanted to make fun of me?”

“Make fun of-“

Keith huffed, setting the book aside. “Look, you can just tease me about it, and we can pretend that none of this ever happened. Just like the bonding moment.” He said the last part with sharper eyes, and Lance scoffed. “I don’t remember the bonding moment.”

Keith stood. “Fine, then I don’t remember you kissing me.”

Lance had hoped he wouldn’t bring that up. “I-“

“Why would you do that? What reason did you have?”

Because he loved Keith, because he wanted to, because his smile was so nice and it felt good to be called pet names and hold his hand. 

I thought it would help you.”  
Keith crossed his arms, frowning harshly. “I don’t care Lance, didn’t happen.”

Because he was brave, because he was handsome, because he was a good friend. Because he wanted more than ‘friend’.

He flailed his arms, raising his voice. “I’m sorry I kissed you okay? It won’t happen again.”

Oh but he wanted it to.

Keith glared at him. “You never stopped me. You let me do whatever I wanted.”

“I tried Keith! I tried to let you do what you wanted within reason; but I didn’t want you to think that we were breaking up! You know why we couldn’t tell you!” Lance yelled, stepping forward slightly.

Keith stepped to meet him, “Why? I would have been over it in a week anyway, why put yourself…?” then he sighed, taking a step back, “I don’t want to fight you.” Keith said with a frown, “I just, I don’t know what to say? You know don’t you, you’ve figured it out?”

Lance looked around the room. “No! I have not!”

Keith stared at him with wide eyes. “You- really?”

Lance crossed his arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Keith.”

Keith just continued to look at him with wide eyes, and he looked away. What could be so big that he hadn’t noticed? 

Keith chuckled quietly, and he uncrossed his arms, relaxing his body. “Of course you wouldn’t.”

Lance frowned. Why was Keith laughing at him, was he implying that he was stupid? Lance thought that maybe they were over that, disliking each other. He thought Keith had thought that he wasn’t dumb, he had told him that. But maybe that was just him being stupid. 

Keith took a step closer to him and held his hands, so they hung awkwardly in the air, and Lance looked at them. “I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just something that you would be oblivious about.”

Keith cringed at his own words, and Lance frowned harder. “Well please enlighten me.”

Keith dropped his hands. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because.”

“Really Keith?” He gave a small smile, “Just tell me.” 

Keith looked down. “You really don’t know?”  


Lance shook his head.

Keith sighed, breathing out a sad laugh. “Fine. Remember how Pidge said that I was hallucinating the last thing I though of?” Lance nodded, “And I thought of dating you?” Again, Lance nodded.

Keith gestured to the air between them, and when Lance still showed that he had no clue, he sighed again. “I thought about it because I wanted to.”

Lance gasped. “What?”

His heart fluttered, had he heard correctly? “I thought about it because I want you to be my boyfriend.”

Lance just stared at him. That couldn’t be right, could it? He really- that whole time he really-

“Really?”

Keith frowned, looking dejected. “I think I love you.”

Lance could have screamed. 

"I know you don’t feel the same, so just don’t hate me? I still want to be friends and we have the team as well so-“

Lance dived forward, pressing his lips against Keith’s. Keith made a sound and Lances eyes snapped back open. He snapped backwards in a panic.

Keith stared at him with pink cheeks, mouth slightly agape. Lance laughed nervously, fidgeting with his hands. “Uh, can we try that again?”

Keith smiled, a genuine one this time. “Yeah.”

They both leaned in.  
Lance felt what could have been hundreds of butterflies begin to swarm in his stomach, Keith’s lips were somehow rough and soft against his. He savoured the feeling.

Lance brought his hands up to Keith’s neck, cradling each side with his thumbs below his ears. Keith brought a hand to his jaw, tilting his head to get a better angle, his other hand rested lightly at his hip, pulling him closer so they could be pressed together.

The kiss was perfect, it was soft and sweet and searching, like they were just testing the waters. They both tried to pour as much affection into it as they could, trying to make up for lost time, for all the confusion, all the waiting. 

Lance sighed happily as they pulled away, their lips parting with a quiet ‘pop’, and they rested their foreheads together, giddy smiles on both of their faces.  
Lance beamed, breathing out. “I think I love you too.”

Keith hummed. “You think?”

Lance giggled, his tired forgotten as his heart raced. “I do.”

Keith sighed, stroking a thumb over his cheekbone. “Say it?”

“I love you Keith.”

Keith smiled at him, and this time Lance knew that it was real. It was all real. “I love you too.”

He smiled widely in return, and pushed himself forward, wrapping his arms around Keith’s shoulders in a tight hug. “You really love me?”

Lance had spent the whole time thinking that Keith would never love him back. he thought it was all hopeless.

Keith laughed. “I really love you. And you love me?”

All the times that it made his heart ache, all the times he wanted to cry, wanted to give up and bury himself in his insecurities and doubts.

“Yes.”

Suddenly they were all worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! So here it is! 
> 
> ////The confession//// 
> 
> And a proper kiss <3


	10. Chapter Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has doubts about his attire for the ball, and Klance still has questions to be answered.

Lance felt lighter as the two of them left the room for dinner, like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. The past week kinda sucked, some of it was good, but that had been more or less drowned out by the hallucination. 

He was glad that they had cleared things up, that had said ‘I love you’, and had meant it. The thought was a little scary, that he was open in how he felt now, but there was also a relief that came with it, that he could hold Keith’s hand and it would mean something for both of them. 

They didn’t say anything to the others about it, but they didn’t really need to, since they had all pretty much known about at least one of their feelings. Though part of him still wasn't sure, what exactly they were. They had never said anything past their confession, about being a couple. He knew Keith liked him, loved him even, and that knowledge made Lance's heart soar. But there were still unanswered questions. 

The confusion and danger of the whole situation was now behind them, all Lance had to worry about for his finale days on Rezala was the ball. 

He had never gone to a ball before, but he had always liked the idea, movies made it look so magical.

And this would be an alien ball, big difference, it would be cooler. As was the nature of aliens.

Except Keith, he wasn’t cool. 

This would also most likely be a chance to dress up. They had gone to parties before, but they had always worn their paladin armour, Lance really wanted a change of pace.

“Can we wear fancy stuff to the ball?” Lance asked. 

It was fairly early late in the afternoon, so the preparations for the ball were at its peak. The paladins were eating their lunch together now, as they weren’t expected to help. Lance had been sure they would end up helping either way, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.

Shiro hummed. “We were just going to wear our paladin uniform, but you can if you want Lance.”

He sighed. “Yeah but I don’t want to be the only one dressed all fancy.” 

Allura smiled. “I would happily join you Lance, it would be so much fun if we were all dressed for it, don’t you think Coran?”

He nodded. “Ah yes, it has been so long since I was able to attend one, they are quite fun too. Lance has the right idea.”

“Sounds fun, but it takes ages to choose something to wear, especially if you’re Lance.” Hunk pointed at him with a small frown, and he stuck out his tongue.

Allura rested her head in her palm with a sly smile. “Oh, Romelle is all over it, I’m sure she already has each of our outfits planned.” 

Shiro frowned. “Well, if you want to.” 

“Don’t tell me you aren’t going to Shiro.” Hunk whined, eyes pleading. He just shrugged in response, and Keith nodded with him. “You guys do what you want, just don’t go overboard.” 

Lance turned to stare at him with indignation, then at Krolia, who was stoic as ever.

She nodded. “Very well, I shall dress in formal attire, so long as I do not have to wear a dress.” 

“Same.” 

Hunk cheered and slung an arm around him and Pidge, who gave him a heart - hearted glare. “We should all wear matching suits!” 

Shiro sighed with a small smile, and Lance grinned as he knew he had caved. “I suppose I could, it just needs to have one arm.” 

That made Pidge snort, and Coran covered him mouth with his hand. Lance turned to Keith. “Come on Keith, please! You’re the only one left, even Shiro’s doing it you grump.” 

Lance eyed him in a challenge, both of them staring at each other before Keith sighed and crossed his arms. “Fine.” 

Lance cheered and Shiro smiled at Keith fondly.

Allura beamed. “Oh, this will be fun!”

****

Turns out, Romelle did have everything sorted. She had racks of clothes for everyone to choose from, all with their respective colours exclusively, save for the addition of white or black. 

She really knew her fashion.

The plan simple, they would each have a turn in the wardrobe with Romelle to choose their outfits, one after the other. They all unanimously agreed that Lance would go last, since he would undoubtably take the longest to choose. He would have been offended if they weren’t right. 

Pidge went first, in and out within ten minutes. Then Hunk, who took longer with half an hour. The rest of them all waiting in a separate room and chatting. 

They had made it through everyone in just under three hours, everyone leaving once their turn was over. Shiro waved Lance in as he left and he gave him a hearty glare, only making him chuckle. He would get them all back somehow.

He stepped inside to see a mess of clothes strewn all over the floor and racks, Romelle facing away from him. He saw a lot of wacky looking things closer to his feet, and he guessed those were Coran’s discarded options. 

When Romelle spotted him, she waved him over to the final rack, pushing clothes away with her feet as she made a trail. She looked exhausted, but her smile didn’t seem to be strained. “So, I have these set out for you, we’ll go through them and get rid of what you don’t like first, then you can try on what you do.” 

He nodded and begun fishing through the clothes, but he noticed one thing about them very quickly. “Why are there so many dresses?”

Romelle smiled. “Well I thought you would suit them, but I had never seen you in a dress before, so I gave you a lot of options. You and the princess had by far the most clothes.” She sighed. “Just throw away the ones you don’t like.”

She gestured to the piles of clothes around the room, and he frowned. “Uh, men don’t typically wear dresses.” 

Romelle rose her eyebrows. “Why ever not? they’re just clothes after all.” 

He swallowed. “I don’t know, but some people don’t like it.”

She frowned and rested her hand atop the rack, Lance followed the action with his eyes. “Do you have a problem with it?”

He shook his head. “No, but the team might? I know Hunk won’t, but I don’t know. I’ve never really worn feminine clothes in front of them, they might think it’s weird.”

“But you are… feminine? Not overbearingly so, but you are not very, what’s the word? Macho?”

He flushed. “Uh, yeah.”

“I saw that aerial dance you performed for the Voltron show, you were very good. You must have had previous experience to have been able to pull that off no?” 

“I used to dance.”

She gave him a small smile, and nodded, gesturing to the rack. “Well I’m sure they will not be bothered; they are all very kind. Besides, Allura would love it.” 

“I’m sure.” 

Romelle huffed. “Really Lance, I have seen how you all act as a group, as friends. They all love you, and each other, they will be nothing but accepting. They always have been, haven’t they?”

He supposed that was true, they never seemed bothered by his and Keith’s… thing. They encouraged it really. And from what Lance had heard, Shiro had a boyfriend at the garrison. He knew that they loved him, or at least cared for him. 

And, he wanted to wear the dress. He had always kinda liked wearing skirts and things, Rachel would sometimes let him borrow her clothes as well, though he never wore them outside of his siblings company. 

Well, Hunk too, but he counted him as a sibling. 

He felt much safer wearing something like that out in space, where only his friends, and some aliens who he knew wouldn’t care could see. 

“But I’m still scared.” 

Romelle frowned. “It’s okay to be scared, I’m sure you’re scared all the time, fighting evil and all,” He gave a weak chuckle. “But you shouldn’t not do something you want to because you’re scared. If you want to do something, I say go for it! especially if you know it will be met with support. That being said, you don’t have to wear a dress if you’re uncomfortable. Just do what you want, you’ll look good either way.”

She tossed him a playful wink and he laughed, turning back to look at the rack. She was right, even if he was scared, he should do what he wanted. “I’ll just wear whatever would look best, dress or no.”

She gave him a wide smile, and the two of them dove into sorting the clothes.

****

Lance definitely took the longest amount of time to decide, but he didn’t take as long as he thought he would, so he considered that a plus.

He ended up choosing a dress. He was a little proud of himself for that.

A royal blue gown with long sleeves and sheer turtle neck, the sleeves were loose and bunched a little at his wrists, little ruffles at the end and by his feet. It was nice, he was very glad of Romelle’s help. 

The dress, of course, incorporated flowers. They were outlined with white and blue in the centre, weaving around his neck and down his front on dark panels.  
He was buzzing from being both nervous and excited, because by now the ball was only two hours away, and so was the ceremony.

Allura had told them to be inside their lounge room by half an hour in, which he thought might be rushing it a bit, but he didn’t question. Surprisingly however, Lance was the first to arrive. 

Although he only had to wait a few minutes before Keith walked through the door. And of course it had to be Keith, not that Lance was complaining. 

But following Keith inside, was Kosmo, the cute fluffy devil. 

And he was wearing a little bow tie. 

Lance flung his arms open where he sat on the couch, Kosmo bounded over with a lolling lounge. “Aww Kos! You are such a cute little gentleman aren’t you? So cute my little fur baby!”

Keith frowned. “Fur baby?”

Lance squeezed Kosmo into a hug and glared at Keith over his shoulder. “He is my baby.”

Keith rolled his eyes with a smile and tilted his head. “The others are changing now; I was told to come and get you.”

Lance rose an eyebrow. “But I’m early?”

“You’re an hour late.” 

Oh, Lance thought. Whoops.

Keith gestured to the door. “Come on.”

Lance stood, and followed Keith out the door, Kosmo trotted behind them. 

They walked down the corridors in silence, spare for Kosmo’s panting breaths. Lance wanted to ask where they stood, what they were, this was the only time he really had with Keith alone all day, and he was getting ansty. But as the two got closer and closer to the changing rooms, his resolve dwindled. He could talk later; he didn’t want that possibly awkward conversation now. 

When they entered, he noticed that everyone but him and Keith, had been dressed in their formal attire. And wow, Romelle sure knew her stuff.

Shiro was clad in black, of course, with purple flowers running up his sleeve, the other cut of just before his arm did. The suit fit him well, Lance was surprised how well they fit everyone actually. 

Shiro gave him a tired smile as he walked in with Keith, Lance laughed sheepishly. 

Pidge was wearing a darker green jacket and a black untied tie hanging over her shoulders, the look was perfect for her. Her pants matched her jacket perfectly and her undershirt was a pale green. She wore the jacket unbuttoned, the flowers on her pockets.

Hunks was almost the same, except he had his buttoned yellow jacket and tied his tie. 

None of them were wearing shoes either, it was weird to see a suit without them.

As Hunk greeted him, Lance vaguely remembered his previous words, ‘We should all wear matching suits’. He swallowed. 

Allura hummed. “Well it’s nice of you to show up Lance, hurry and get changed now, the ruler is expecting us shortly. Lew will help you; Marla will help Keith. Go!”

He barely had time to admire her outfit before he was shoved through the door, met with a smiling Lew, and a royal blue dress. 

They grinned. “Well I was beginning to think you were not going to show, now come here, I’ll help you in this. Wonderful choice by the way, I’m sure it will look stunning!”

He gave a strained smile as they stared at him intently, waving their hands in a circular motion. “You must undress first.”

“Oh, yup okay.”

He shed his pants off with a small blush, then his shirt. Lew hummed and pressed the fabric of the dress to his front, and they smiled. “You step into it and I will seal it closed.”

Lance wasn’t exactly sure about ‘sealing it’ but he complied as quickly as he could manage, carful with the fabric in his hands. 

It was a really bad time to be having doubts, but he supposed there was no going back. It would be fine; his friends would be nice. He had to trust them.

As soon as he slipped his arms through the sleeves, Lew pressed their hand to his back and neck along the sheer paneling. He felt it squeeze to his skin like it was becoming a part of it, it made him shiver. It didn’t feel uncomfortable, just strange. He wondered if the others were like this as well. 

Lew gasped as they faced the front of him, and he gave a hopeful smile. “So, it’s good?”

They nodded. “Oh yes, quite stunning. Have a look for yourself.”

He slowly made his way to the mirror, watching his reflecting move as he did. “Bonito.” (Pretty) He felt the fabric near his legs and bunched it in his hands, it was very soft, completely unlike the materiel earth used for evening dresses. This was surprisingly comfortable. 

The dress, was, without a doubt, very stunning. It fit him perfectly, and Romelle was right, it brought out his eyes. 

He looked… Good, in it. He hoped the other would think so too. 

Lew clapped their hands. “Oh you look wonderful, come show your friends!” 

His heart leaped. He would prefer not to really, but he chose this. He could do it; he’d fought galra before, he could handle his friends.

His heart wouldn’t get the memo.

It was beating like crazy as Lew gripped his arm and dragged him out, and his eyes widened comically as he saw that they were all looking towards him. 

He shuffled to the side and turned his head away, not meeting any of their eyes as he blushed furiously, awaiting judgement.

“Oh my goodness, Lance what a lovely dress!” Allura gushed as she moved to grip his arm. “You look so stunning! It suits you so well!”

He gave a bashful smile at her comments and pried her away from his arm to look at her outfit. “Hermoso! And you say I look good, have you seen yourself?” (Beautiful)

Her dress was a pale pink, similar to the one she wore in the castle, but sleeveless, and adorned with many glimmering gems, shaped like flowers. Her hair was let down to hang low on her back.

Shiro cleared his throat from across the room, and he gave him a reassuring smile. “You look nice Lance.” 

His heart felt warmer. “Thanks.”

Hunk moved to sling an arm over his shoulder and draw him in for a hug. Lance complied, squeezing him tightly. “Aw man, you’re looking great!” 

He beamed. “Not too bad yourself Hunkles.”

Pidge patted his arm with a sigh and a small smile. “Looks better on you than it ever would on me.”

He laughed. “Hey, you’re rocking the suit hermanita.” (Endearment for younger sister)

She scoffed at the nickname and Lance ruffled her hair, making her screech. 

Lance raised his gaze to meet Keith’s eyes. He inhaled. 

Keith looked good, way too good to be fair. His hair was tied in a ponytail, fringe framing his face. His suit was a deep maroon, open jacket and black undershirt, flowers on the cuffs of his sleeved and collar. 

He just stared at him, saying nothing. Lance felt the warmth he had been feeling evaporate.

What if he didn’t like it?

Coran cleared his throat and nodded to the door. All of them turning to look in the direction to see Raymon standing in the doorway, and humored smile on their face. 

They smiled, giving them a small bow. “You all look very lovely paladins, now come, our ruler is missing you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thanks for reading! 
> 
> I deleted the art because I'm embarrassed :/
> 
> But, uh. I'm really, really sorry for the wait, I promise I will finish! I just kept putting this off,,, and time did it's thing :/


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance goes to the ball, but does Keith like his attire?

The ballroom was gorgeous, everyone was stunned. They had all seen this room before, but somehow it had transformed into something… magical. It was bustling with Rezaian’s, all chatting away in elegant gowns and suits. Lance beamed as he saw it.

“I see you are impressed?” Raymon spoke with a grin. 

Shiro gave them a soft pat on the back, looking around. “You outdid yourself; this is amazing.”

The walls were covered in gold, the light reflecting onto the smooth ground floor, making everything seem to glow. Another thing was the large staircase they were standing on top of, it remind Lance of a princess movie he had once watched, he had never felt more like her in his life. 

He gripped pidges shoulder, who was standing in front of him and gave her a tight squeeze. “Oh my gosh this is the coolest thing I have ever been to. Don’t you feel like a princess?”

She scoffed. “I feel like I’m going to eat all of the food on that table.”

He turned his head as she pointed to a long table off to the side, making Hunk gush. “Wow, that looks amazing!”

Lance chuckled, and Shiro shook his head. 

Though Keith was still silent. 

He didn’t speak for as long as the ruler greeted them all, or afterwards when they were told to enjoy the party, all of the time he said nothing. 

He only moved to go to his mother when he spotted her standing next to Dr. Belee, Lance watched him go. He was sure Keith felt uncomfortable, and he knew it wasn’t the crowd. It had to be the dress; Keith was fine before the dress. 

They had all dispatched fairly quickly, Hunk and Pidge unsurprisingly going to the buffet, while the three Alteans grouped together to go and mingle. He saw that Lew and Marla were close to Raymon, all laughing loudly.

He wanted to enjoy it all, but his mind went back to Keith every time he looked out into the crowd. Questions buzzing in his mind. What would happen to them now?   
Did Keith hate him? 

Shiro waved to him as he approached, Lance gave him a weak smile in return. He suddenly realised how he must have looked, in the corner alone. 

“You okay Lance? You were really excited about this.”

Lance shook his head. “I know, I just, Keith never said anything and it’s-“

“About… the dress?” Shiro interrupted. 

Lance cringed. “Yeah.” 

Shiro gave him a small nod, and Lance turned back to the crowd, cheeks warm. 

“Hey, I can understand why you would be worried about what we would think, it’s really important to have the people you care about be accepting. But you should know that we’re nothing but proud of you for doing this, Keith included.” 

“Are you sure? He didn’t even make eye contact with me.”

Shiro groaned loudly, making Lance jump, and he dragged his palm across his face. “That boy. Is a mess.”

Lance rose an eyebrow, but Shiro just waved him off, already beginning to walk away. “I’m going to talk to him for a second. You go and have fun.”

Lance frowned, leaning back onto the wall. Shiro gave him a pointed look. “You will go and have fun right now, or I will ground you.”

He scoffed. “You can’t do that.”

“Watch me.” With that he turned around, already searching for what Lance could only guess would be Keith.

He didn’t want to spend his entire evening sulking in the corner, he knew he would regret it later, so he figured he might as well try to have as much fun as he could while it lasted. He knew there would still be more battles ahead.

He was quick to walk to the first person he recognised, which happened to be Krolia. He gave her an awkward wave. “How are you liking the party?” 

She sighed. “I am not one for these types of things, Keith tells me he is the same. Though he attended this for you, he said it would make you happy.”

He breathed out a small ‘oh’.

“You seemed to be upset also, were you not excited?”

He smiled. “Yeah, I’m good. This is really cool, I’m just waiting for everyone to break out in song and synchronised dance.”

She gave him and odd look, and tilted her head, making him sigh. “You are so much like Keith it’s- wait! Um, I say Vol, you say Tron! Vol…”

Her eyes widened as she looked to her side, then back to Lance. “I’m sorry?”

“Listen to the instructions and do what I say, okay? I say Vol, you say Tron, Vol...?”

She raised a brow. “Vol…Tron? What are we doing?”

He brought both his hands to the sides of his nose and breathed out a laugh, grinning widely. “You and Keith are like the same person. I am so going to tell Hunk and Pidge!”

He lips quirked upwards as he said that, like she was proud. 

She met his eyes with the small smile before she looked over his shoulder, and before he could turn around, he felt a hand touch his arm, making him jump.

“Hi mum, can I just talk with Lance a moment?”

She nodded with a wave, smiling as if she was amused, and walked off, not sparing them another glance.

Lance opened his mouth to speak, talking a small step backwards, but Keith beat him to it. “I like the dress. A lot. You look… really good.” 

Lance’s eyes widened before he gave Keith a smile, offering his hand. “Dance with me?”

Keith looked between him and his hand with uncertainty. “I can’t really… dance.” 

Lance shrugged, taking Keith by the arm and dragging him along, further into the crowd.

Lance placed both of his hands atop Keith’s shoulders, and Keith rested his own tentatively on Lances hips. Lance gave a small laugh, beginning to sway. “You know, you were a lot more eloquent when you were high on that bug bite. Who would have thought?”

His own words made him snicker further, and Keith grumbled quietly, averting his eyes. “To be fair, I thought we had already said ‘I love you’, so we kinda skipped the nervous part.”

Lance nodded, “I suppose so, but you said so many compliments before.”

Keith frowned. “I like the dress Lance.” 

Lance cheeks flushed as he chuckled, looking away. “I didn’t mean right now.” 

“Well, I like it a lot, so stop worrying about it.”

“Then why did you ignore me for so long?”

He was met with silence. He could almost hear the ‘click’ sound off in his mind. 

He grinned widely. “You were flustered.”

Keith groaned, and Lance grinned wider, trying to smother his laughter. “You were just flustered this whole time? Aww, Keithy.”

Keith met his eyes, looking exasperated. “You are flustered all the time.”

Lance hummed, eyes glittering. “Yes well it’s you, so it’s funny.”

That earned him a roll of the eyes. “I thought maybe now you’d lay off on the teasing.”

Lance smirked. “Being my boyfriend doesn’t give you special treatment Keith.”

Then he froze. “Oh, uh sorry.” 

He kicked himself inwardly for his choice of words. Of all the things he could have said.

He knew that Keith wasn’t one to… rush things. He was slow, eased into it. He also knew that they had said ‘I love you’. But he was sure it would be a one off thing, where they would say it once, then never again for two years after. 

But Keith didn’t seem at all worried by his statement. In fact, he smiled. “We can be boyfriends.”

Lance flushed, a wide smile already growing on his lips. “We can?”

“Yeah.” Their eyes met momentarily, then Keith’s dropped to his lips. Lance knew what he was thinking, and he was thinking it too. But because Lance was Lance, he decided to press a finger to Keith’s lips, smiling softly, a small furrow to his brow.

“Hey, no, we do this properly.”

Keith rolled his eyes again and sighed fondly. “Fine, Lance-“

He pressed down on Keith’s lips more firmly, barely containing a pout. “I wanna do it.”

“Really, Lance-“ Keith gave a small laugh and shook his head. 

Lance tapped his shoulder. “Shut up, you can propose or something, just let me have this.” 

He stopped, and met Keith’s wide eyes and high eyebrows, that expression, Lance was sure was reflected in his own face.

Keith gaped at him. “Propo-“

“Shut up, shut up!”

Keith laughed, avoiding Lances swatting arms, and pulled him closer from where he held him on the hips. “I guess I’ll keep that in mind.”

Lance groaned. “Oh my god, never mind, I don’t want to date you. You jerk.” 

Keith only laughed harder, Lance glaring at him as much as he could muster with his embarrassment. Keith leaned forward as his laughter quietened, nudging his cheek with his nose. “Ask me?”

“Nope.”

“Lance.”

“Wanna be my boyfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“Well too bad, you don’t mess with the dress Kogane.”

Keith groaned and pressed their foreheads together, making Lance smile. “Be my boyfriend Lance?”

He frowned. “Hey, I was asking.”

Keith smiled, meeting his eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll still propose if you’d like.” 

Lance flushed. “You suck.”

“You still didn’t answer my question.”

Lance leaned back, meeting Keith’s eyes, soft as he’d ever seen them. He knew he had already given up. “Yes, I’ll be your boyfriend.”

They both smiled in sync, leaning together with a gentle press of the lips, but that was all Lance needed. He felt warm, so warm as he felt their smiles against each other. He let himself feel.

****

With that out of the way, Lance could finally, completely enjoy the ball, new (official) alien boyfriend included. 

Unsurprisingly, all of them had grouped back together, minus Krolia and The Alteans, who were currently performing the Alca ceremony, a crowd bunching around in eager admiration. 

Shiro looked smug in his pride, when the two had made their way to him with clasped hands. Hunk looked delighted, to say the least, and Pidge was nonchalant, completely unfazed by the revolution. Her only acknowledgement was a faint ‘finally’ and a roll of the eyes. Lance knew she meant it lovingly. 

Shiro smiled widely, and Lance knew his arms would be crossed if he had enough to cross them. He tried his best not to laugh at the thought of that.

“So you guys talked?”

“Yup.” Was the only reaction Keith gave, but Lance saw the small smile he wore. It made him smile too.

Hunk cheered. “So you’re together now? Aww I’m so happy for you guys.” 

He drew them both into a large hug, making them splutter, and Shiro laughed from the side.  
Lance beamed, patting Hunks back. “Thanks buddy.” 

They all flowed into easy conversation, but Keith never let go of his hand, and Lance never let go of his smile.

A little ways after the Alca ceremony was over, the Alteans joined them again, Krolia lingering behind to talk to ruler Sushmar.

Lew and Marla gave them all a wave, before they ran off to dance together, similar to how he and Keith had been dancing earlier, which came as surprise to the rest of the paladins.

Hunk pointed at the two of them with raised brows, and everyone followed his finger. “You don’t think they’re a couple, do you?”

Allura hummed, turning away. “They had never shown much affection in front of us, have they?”

Coran shook his head. “We were occupied with Keith most of the time we were near them, so your guess is as good as mine.”

They all turned back to watching the two of them, as their faces became closer and closer as seconds passed, pressing their lips together briefly before pulling away.  
“Well I guess that answers that.”

Everyone had the same look of surprise on their face, making Lance laugh loudly. “Oh come on, and you say I’m dense.”

Pidge scoffed. “You are.”

Lance frowned. “Well I noticed- Oh my gosh. Kos! Come here!”

He trailed off when he saw Kosmo, who was a stark contrast to the Rezala’s, black against pale colours.

He was standing by Krolia, who was making her way over to them. But Lances eyes were solely on the fluffy wolf, who had now gained a little hat alongside his bow. It was almost too cute to bare. 

Kosmo turned to him eagerly, and zapped himself to Lance’s side, rubbing his hand. 

Lance cooed at his happy face and petted him with gusto. “My fur baby, you’re so cute, look at you! So handsome! I’m taking you from Keith. You’re mine now.”

Hunk moved to join Lance in giving Kosmo attention, and his tail wagged happily from side to side. 

Shiro raised an amused brow. “Fur baby?”

Keith shrugged. “That’s what I said.” 

****

When the night was over, Lance was incredibly tired, and as much as he loved his dress, he wanted nothing more than to peel it from his skin and jump into bed. 

Everyone else was in a similar state, all drowsy from their night of fun, but happy smiles remained on their faces. 

Lance knew that it had been their last day on Rezala, and he was really going to miss the friends he had made, but it felt good at the same time, to know that they were ready to help Voltron.

Their lions were more than ready to leave as well, having gained a lot of health whilst everything had been going on around them, which Lance was glad of.

They would sleep in their very comfy beds for one more night before departure, Lance wanted to make the most of it.

He had insisted that everyone come to his and Keith’s room for face masks, which Lew and Marla happily supplied. Keith had complained a little bit, about having everyone crowded in there when he wanted to sleep, but he conceded. Lance knew Keith would miss Lew and Marla too. 

Allura and Romelle sat on the floor, leaning against the wall with Kosmo laid across their legs petting him slowly as they chatted away. Hunk and Pidge were painting each other with the masks provided and making funny faces as it dried on their skin. 

Lew fondled over Shiro, slicking back his hair and applying the cream to his face, while Marla braided Corans moustache, before applying his cream.

Lance sat behind Keith on the bed, braiding his hair like he used to do with his sisters, while Keith complained about how itchy his face was becoming. Lance was surprised Krolia wasn’t doing the same. 

“I need to scratch my face.”

Lance huffed. “You do not. Don’t ruin it.”

Lew beamed as they finished up dressing Shiros face and hummed excitedly. “Your species have such lovely skin. Especially you Lance, but Shiro, your skin is very nice as well.”

Shiro sighed, meeting Lances grinning face across the room, and rolled his eyes. “Yes, no one can beat Lance when it comes to skin care.”

“Well me and Keith-“

Shiro coughed. “Keith and I.” 

“-Shut up old man. Keith and I… don’t do any skin care thing, I think Hunk has moisturizer, and Allura has… something. But we don’t use anything.” Pidge stated.  
Lance scoffed. “That’s because you are heathens.”

“Heathens with very nice skin.” Lew nodded seriously, and Lance chuckled.

“Heathens with unfairly nice skin.”

****

It was much later when everyone had made their way to their own rooms, calm and sleepy.

Lance knew that his pamper night idea would boost everyone’s moods, especially since it was their last day on the planet.

But Lance was much to calm to think about that, he was sure the face masks had something in them to make him react this way, but he would never admit to it. He was just that good with face masks.

Keith was also very calm, sitting on the bed and waiting for Lance to join him with a small smile on his face, which Lance did with happiness.

He joined Keith under the covers and pressed his face to Keith hair, smiling lazily, making Keith chuckle. “Did you have fun today?”

Lance sighed. “Yeah, it was great.”

“I’m glad, you deserved it, after having to deal with me for the whole week.”

“Oh please, you were fine, it was my pathetic pining that ruined everything.”

Keith laughed at that; Lance smiled into his hair. “How long?”

The two shifted, so they could face each other whilst lying on their sides, and Lance gave him a confused look. “How long what?”

Keith smiled sheepishly, Lance watching intently as his lips curled upwards. “How long were you pining?”

Oh. Well. 

“Uh, probably since you became blacks piolet. I guess I understood you a lot more then, that you were just as scared as I was, that we were in it together. I stopped thinking of you as something to beat then, and more of someone to support.”

And that was very true to him. After he had accepted that Keith would be better off for black, he backed off. It hurt him for a little while, that Keith just had to one up him again, but he knew it was for the best.

And when red chose him, he found himself fall further into place. He understood that he was destined for something different, not something lesser.

That different just happened to be Keith’s right hand, and what a good right hand he was.

Keith gave him a soft smile, and Lance brushed some of the hair out of his eyes, leaning in to give him a soft peck. 

“What about you?”

Keith frowned then, only small, but there was a hint of sadness in his eyes, almost like an apology. “When you came to me asking if you should step down as the red paladin.”

Lance breathed out a quiet ‘oh’. 

“I guess it made me realise how much you cared about us, that you weren’t self-centred at all. I knew that before, of course, but I never really acknowledged it, like it only extended as far as your pride. You seemed vulnerable, and you trusted me to help, it made me feel closer to you, and I liked seeing you smile afterwards.”

Lance beamed, and shuffled closer to Keith, almost pressing their bodies together. “You’re so sweet Keithy.”

Keith hummed, nuzzling his nose against Lance’s, and he refused to ruin the moment by making a cat joke. But he would remember to later. “Only for you, le raal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again :D
> 
> Sooo, one more chapter to go! I cannot stop writing Klance cuddling at night, I may have an addiction. 
> 
> I also added a Barbie reference in there, if you know you know. ;)


	12. Chapter Twelve, The End.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Voltron have to leave Rezala, but not without some parting gifts.

When Lance woke the next morning he was wrapped up in Keith’s arms, almost exactly the same as how they had fallen asleep. He savoured the moment.

He just wanted to stay there, with Keith, in a comfortable bed for as long as they wanted, not having to worry about the war that was looming above their heads.

He knew that it wasn’t very realistic, but he let himself hope that maybe one day they could do that. That one day they could always wake up together, they could always go to sleep together. Though he knew that he would have to wait a long time for it to get there. 

Because right now, the universe needed Voltron, but he supposed that if he could have a helping hand in making the universe happy, he could deal with waiting.

Keith’s eyelids fluttered open not long after, Lance watched as they caught the light when Keith would blink, and when his greyish eyes poked out from beneath them.

Keith smiled down at him when he noticed he was looking and gave Lance’s body a weak squeeze, sighing. “Good morning beautiful.” 

Keith bowed his head to press a soft kiss to Lance’s forehead, humming quietly. 

Lance sighed, lips quirking into a smile when Keith lips stayed there. “Morning.”

They stayed like that for a moment, too tired to really move. Too happy to either. But Keith shuffled away with a groan and turned his head. Lance followed his gaze to the door.

He gave Lance an apologetic smile. “We should probably get up?”

Lance whined and shook his head, burring himself further into the pillows. “No, I don’t wanna.”

Keith brushed some of the hair out of Lance’s eyes with a tired chuckle, forcing Lance to look at him. “Come on, we don’t want to be late.” 

Lance huffed, craning his neck and puckering his lips dramatically, stretching his arms out to Keith. “Gimme a kiss.” 

And for a moment, Keith seemed like he was going to, moving in and everything, but he pulled away instead, letting Lance fall face first onto the pillow. 

Keith smirked proudly, “No bad breath kisses.” Lance pouted.

He stared at Keith for a few seconds, looking confused, before he realised the joke he was making. “Come on, you know that’s not fair. I was just trying to-“

Keith interrupted him with a frown, leaning down to take Lance’s hand. He pulled him upwards and off of the bed, so they were both standing. “I know, I’m sorry. But it sucked for me too you know.”

Lance scoffed, crossing his arms playfully. “It totally sucked less for you though.”

“Oh yeah we were dating for me, you were still pinning.” Keith fought a smile, and Lance huffed.

“Shut up, you were technically still pinning… and we’re dating now.”

Keith smiled, hands hovering over Lance’s hips. “Yeah, took us long enough.” 

He leaned down with a small smile, and Lance got the message quickly, moving to meet him half way. He could feel Keith’s breaths against his lips, so close to being pressed together.

But they jumped apart when there was a loud knock on the door, Pidge shouting from the other side. “Bright and early love birds, suits on, it’s almost time to go.” 

****

Lance insisted that he get changed first, promising he would be in and out as quickly as possible, which Keith barely agreed to. Lance took only slight offence to that implication.

He did however, finish quickly, walking out of the bathroom with a smug grin, Keith rolled his eyes. He pressed a kiss to Keith’s cheek as he walked past him and opened the door, turning around to give him a dramatic wave as he stepped away from the doorframe. He heard Keith’s laugh become fainter as he walked away.

Everyone else had already been ready to leave, suited up and sitting on the large couch in a messy circle, it seemed that they had just been waiting on him and Keith.

Pidge scoffed as he entered. “You’re so slow.”

“Hey! I’m quick in battle, that’s what counts.”

She rolled her eyes playfully, barely containing her smile. “Sure it does.”

Lance stuck out his tongue and Shiro gave a tired laugh, waving his hands between them as I to break them apart from a fist fight.

Okay guys, that enough.” He turned to Lance, “We’re going to head to the hanger, Coran and Krolia are already there. I’m sure the Ruler will be there too, and Lew and Marla. We’re going to leave shortly after.”

Lance dropped himself beside Shiro with a sigh, sprawling himself out on the seat. Hunk rested his head in his palm. “I’m gonna miss this place, it was so calm. The food was so good too, oh man.”

Lance hummed. “I’m gonna miss Lew and Marla, they were really great.”

Keith walked out then, giving them a little wave, and Shiro signalled for everyone to stand. “Let’s go.”

****

The walk to the hanger didn’t take very long, only about five minutes. But Lance didn’t pay much attention on the way there.

He was excited to see red again, he hadn’t really felt her in his mind since they had land, being focused on other things. But now he could hear something in the back of his mind, and the feeling made him brighten.

Red was restless, and her emotions were beginning to spill into him too. He wanted to get up and fly again, and he was sure everyone else was just as eager. 

When they arrived at the hanger the first thing Lance saw was their lions, neatly in a row and standing tall, he realized he would never get over how that particular view made him feel.

The next thing that he saw was the four Rezala’s standing in front of the lions. Lew and Marla were standing closer together, both holding flowers of different assortments in their arms with care. They all showcased similar, sad smiles. He could share the sentiment. 

Ruler Sushmar smiled brighter as they saw them enter, and bowed in greeting, Allura doing the same once they were close enough. 

“Hello paladins. As you can see, your lions are faring much better, they are ready for your departure.”

Keith nodded his head to them with a small smile of gratitude, taking a small step closer to them. “Thank you for your hospitality and care, we are very grateful.”

They beamed. “We were very happy to provide. I am glad to see that you are doing well again.” They sighed, “You saved our planet paladins, we are indebted to   
you. I give you this, so that you can contact us whenever you are in need, we will be there.”

Raymon took a step forward and handed Allura a communicator, nodding respectfully. She smiled. “Thank you ruler, we trust in your alliance to the coalition.”

Raymon smiled. “And we trust in your Voltron with the universe”

Lance’s own smile widened, Hunk meeting his eyes with reflected pride. 

Lew cleared their throat, and everyone turned to them as they took a step forward, nodding to the flowers they were holding. “We would like to give you these flowers as parting gifts, paladins.”

Marla walked forward to stand next to them, Ruler Sushmar and Raymon talking a step back. Lew spoke excitedly, everyone’s gaze fixed onto the flowers they held. “They each have a different meaning, the flowers, and will never die, so long as you do not step on them or something.” They chuckled. “We will miss you all, and we would like to give you these so that you can remember us.”

Marla smiled, and handed Allura a pale pink flower, which Allura took tentatively. “This flower means nobility,” They explained, “It means power, and you, princess Allura, have great power.”

She smiled softly as she took it in her hands, caressing the soft looking petals as she thanked them.

Next was Keith, who was handed a red flower, this ones petals seemed to be sharper, but they were also soft to touch. “This flower means leadership and trust, your team greatly trusts you to guide them, you must trust that they are right.”

He smiled bashfully as he took it, and Shiro rested his hand on his shoulder, smiling at him proudly.

Then they turned to Shiro. “This flower means ‘gentle strength’. You are very strong, you have been though many difficult things, but to the ones you care for, you are still gentle.”

They handed Shiro his flower, and he took it with a smile. Lance new that it was true, about Shiro, he really was a gentle giant, in the nicest of ways.

“Hunk, your flower represents kindness and passion. You have passion for your friends, but for protecting others also. You have a kind nature, and always choose the kind thing to do.”

Hunk looked close to tears as he accepted his own, and Shiro gave him a small smile. 

“Pidge, this flower means knowledge and mischief. Never have we known someone as intelligent as you, but also as clever. You know how to trick anyone, and can do it with a smile, even making others smile as well.”

Then they turned to Lance, who took his own, blue flower with careful hands. It was a flower he thought that he had seen before, and then it hit him. 

“And Lance, to you we have given a Huagra, because we have seen as you were here, that you are the one who keeps the team together. Your contributions and ideas were what had swayed your teams opinions.” He nodded dumbly, “This flower means love. You love and are loved by your team, and by us as well.” 

He stared at them in almost disbelief, before he launched himself onto them in a tight hug, making them laugh. “Thank you Marla, Lew. We’ll miss you all a lot.”

They gave him a soft squeeze, and a large smile as the two parted. “We will miss you as well.”

Lew and Marla took a step back again, and everyone turned their attention back to ruler Sushmar, who clapped their hands with a knowing smile. They gestured to the lions. “I believe you have a universe to save.”

For a moment, everyone looked to Keith, and he smiled at them, turning towards his lion, begging to run. Lance’s face lit up as he made for his own lion, letting out an airy laugh when the red opened up for him again, inviting him inside.

****

He beamed as red started up again, light filling the cockpit as the scanners whirred and buzzed, the warm feeling of red in his mind purring in a welcome.

He missed this feeling, the excitement of take-off, the rush he felt from red. He opened the comms with a smile, seeing his friends through the screen, all looking just as happy to be back in their lion.

Keith chuckled as Kosmo blocked him from view, taking up Lance’s screen. He chuckled as well. “I have Shiro and my mum, everyone else?”

Coran waved at them through Allura’s screen, and Lance waved back. “Everyone is accounted for, ready to go!”

Lance set his flower on the dash board with a fond sigh, giving the petals one last pet before he gripped the steering.

“Back to earth?” Hunk asked.

Lance nodded, a smile creeping onto his face as he realised, it was finally time to go home. “Back to earth.”

****

Flying again felt amazing, and so did the anticipation of returning to earth. He really couldn’t wait to see his family again, to show them his amazing team and very awesome new half-alien boyfriend.

He would also definitely include the ‘half-alien’ part as well, because that was cool, and his family would love it.

Lance was making the bulk of their conversation as they flew further and further away from Rezala, they had been talking about places they would visit once they got back to earth. And Lance was always the expert on nice places.

“We have to go to Varadero beach! I promise you it has the most beautiful sunsets, mi familia always went there when I was a kid, you’ll love it.”

He heard Keith chuckle from the comms. “Sure le raal, sounds nice.”

He smiled at the nick name and opened his mouth again, but his next sentence was inturupted by a gasp.

“Keith! Already?”

“What?” Pidge piped up.

He watched Krolia eye Keith from the side with a sly looking smile, Keith looking completely embarrassed and averting everyone’s eyes. 

But she ignored that. “Le raal is a galran endearment, it is an expression-“

Keith whined, turning to glare at her. “Mum, can you not?”

Shiro laughed form the other side of Keith, and Lance gave a small snort when he pat Keith’s head. “Oh no you don’t, Krolia, what does it mean?”

She paused for a moment, looking between Keith and Shiro, before she nodded. “Well, it means, loosely, ‘more than life’. Basically that the recipient means more to the person than life does, that they would give their life for their loved one. That their loved one is their life, but more.” 

There was a pregnant pause.

“And Keith just said that to Lance?”

Keith groaned.

“Aww that’s so cute you guys!” Hunk cheered, and Lance was turning an alarming shade of red.

Pidge made a gagging noise, but was looking at Lance, like she trying to gauge his reaction. “Its gross.” He hid his face in his hands.

Allura scoffed, waving her hand beside her ear and smiling delightedly. “Nonsense Pidge, it’s very sweet.

Keith groaned again, and Shiro slapped his back heartily. “I’m glad you guys worked things out; the pining was bad.”

Keith chuckled half-heartedly. “I know.”

Lance paused, staring at Shiro offendedly. “Wait…”

Shiro hummed. 

“You knew about Keith’s feelings for how long?”

“A while.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me that?” Lance screeched, making Shiro pause.

“Well I didn’t know that you-“

He scoffed. “Yes you did.”

“Fine, but I wanted you to sort it out on your own! It turned out well anyway.”

Lance crossed his arms and turned his head to the side with a pout. He could hear reds growing amusement in his mind, and he held back a smile. “I’m not talking to you Shiro.”

Pidge gave a loud snort and Shiro gasped. “Woah, Lance, I’m sorry-“

He hummed, making red shake her head at him inside of his mind, which made him smirk. “Do you hear something guys?”

Allura laughed loudly, and Lance sat back feeling smug. “Aww, don’t be mad at Shiro, could you imagine how angry Keith would be if he had told you?”

He rolled his eyes. “That information would have saved me a lot of trouble.”

Keith cleared his throat, turning to Shiro with a murderous glare, “Me too.” He backed away with raised hands.

Lance felt happiest like this, his friends all laughing and bickering light heartedly, he could feel that red was enjoying it too. She also seemed happy about Keith and him being together, he figured she thought it was a long time coming. 

“I bet Lance waited for Keith to confess, he would have died before he said anything.” Pidge snickered, making everyone else laugh. 

“Yeah, he did.” Keith added, and Lance immediately stuck out his tongue, a very brilliant idea popping into his head.

He smiled, a smug little grin as he met Keith's eyes. “Oh, bite me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! 
> 
> Okay, again, I'm very, very, sorry for the wait :(((( I didn't mean to take this long, but I was a little lost on how to write the ending, then it just kinda came to me. I am seriously though, very sorry :(
> 
> BUT I did finish it, as promised, so that has to count for something right?
> 
> Anyway, this is the end, I thought it was fitting :),,,I hope enjoyed it, it was admittedly very fun to write, and the comments always made my day. So thank you for sticking around! And, as always, thank you for reading :D

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, thanks for reading! I hoped you liked it so far, I will be adding more chapters.
> 
> I may or may not delete this later but I most likely won't if you liked it!
> 
> I'm a bit new to this so sorry for any mistakes.


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